


Electric Dreams

by orphan_account



Category: Tomorrowland (2015)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Artificial Intelligence, Disney, F/M, Female Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Mystery, Post-Canon, Robots, Romance, Science, Science Fiction, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-07
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-03 05:43:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 43,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4089121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A dangerous gap in time and space wreaks havoc on Frank Walker's life, returned to a former self he is returned to Tomorrowland. Meanwhile Casey Newton's mission to bring back the part of their trio that didn't make it out alive may bring more trouble than good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Site

**Author's Note:**

> I should've been studying for a math final, enough said.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Casey Newton's work on her newest project is interrupted when Frank Walker disappears in a mysterious event.

**TL: Robotics Lab, June 14 2016, 1400 hours: Casey Newton**

It was brilliantly sunny, the light reflecting off the white or glass buildings of the future and dancing on the water, unfortunately, I, Casey Newton was inside yet again in the harshly lit, subterranean robotics laboratory. Some biotechnologist at least a head taller than me named Soraya, was listing off various amino acid classifications as though her life depended on it. Needless to say, I was more than slightly confused as to what each of these did. The programming and hardware of robotics were easier to keep up with compared to the endless list of biological vocabulary words. Soraya’s assistant was frantically typing in her orders to the machine that would synthesize the protein to generate tissue for a humanlike body.

“No, no, can I see the DNA sequence another time Casey?” she stopped her recitation.

I brought Athena’s coding up on the projector again. “I can leave it up, if you don’t need to specifications anymore.”

“Good, thank you.” Soraya muttered, almost unintelligibly, raising a hand to straighten her hijab on resting on her forehead.

We were so close to finishing the secret project, everyone was feeling a little anxious as to what would happen, most people don’t put effort into reviving animatronics that’d been gone nearly a year. Come to think of it, most people don’t put effort into animatronics. Period. 

“When do you think we can assemble her?” I asked the biologist. “When will your compounds be ready?”

“Tonight, if we work fast. Do you have a plan for getting the -“ Soraya looked mildly disgusted. “-wires… inside of it?”

“Mr. Walker’s machine does it for us, the same one that you’re using… right now? Did you not know that?”

Frank had built a glorified third-dimensional printer for this purpose, it first created a skeleton of a titanium-aluminium alloy. Then wove the skeleton with wires to control installing a power source, storage compartments, imitation lungs for a breathing impulse and distributors for mechanical lubricant. It then began creating muscles from stem cells, interweaving the muscles with sensors and control wires. At this point, stem cells, genetically altered to display certain traits were used to grow the external features of the animatronic. The skin was implanted with sensors for touch, temperature, et cetera during this time as well. More external features, such as the shoulder and calf control panels were inserted, allowing skin to grow around it. When the robot leaves the machine, their cells do not keep growing as years ago, David Nix had discovered a way to disable mitosis all together. Genetic Engineering is a real beauty. 

Soraya reddened and looked down. “I wasn’t thinking.”

 

There was a knock on the glass window that let passersby look into the lab, Nate was standing outside looking frantic.

What? I mouthed at him.

He gestured for me to come out.

“Soraya, I gotta go… you good here for a while?”

“Mmmm”

That’s probably a yes.

I burst through the sliding glass doors and walked towards Nate. “What happened?”

He grabbed my hand. “There was an accident Casey, at the Site.”

The Site, oh, crap. Something had happened there, some time-space anomaly straight out of Star Trek or something had developed where Frank’s machine had once been. No one really understood it yet, and a team had been trying constantly to shut it down for the past half-year. And, no, we haven’t really thought of a better name for it.

“Is Dad okay?” Panic rose in my throat, my father had been down there this morning.

“Dad’s fine, it wasn’t him, Case’ it was Frank.”

“What happened to him? Is he…”

“I don’t know, I don’t know. He disappeared. There was a tiny geologic change that was recorded and the whole thing went crazy for about ten seconds, he got caught.”

The ground was shifting underneath my feet, Frank could be anywhere or worse, he might not have survived. I took off running, dragging a protesting Nate behind me up the stairs. We broke through into the sun-filled atrium and then out onto the street.

Danger Site was flooded with paramedics and confused physicists. Dad came running towards us, his face flushed.

“Stay back!” he hollered. “It’s reacting again. Casey, stay back. Don’t let anyone get closer.”

I looked towards the sky, what for all means and purposes appeared to be a small rain cloud seemed to be forming, low to the ground. It was oddly contained, it would not continue past a certain point.

Panicked citizens were gathering around me, pointing at the sky and talking loudly.

“Stay back!” I yelled. “This is an unsafe area, please go, we will get this under control as soon as possible. Stay back!”

They didn’t seem to inclined to listen, some people had notepads out and were writing things down, some had cameras or mobile phones out to record the event. Some watched and yelled to those around them.

I heard the noise of a powerful wind, howling and gusting, I saw equipment and people go flying everywhere, but I felt no wind at all. In fact, the effected were solely within the area of the cloud.

And then came the all out panic.

The crowd that had gathered surged forward, pushing through the temporary barriers, I tried to follow Dad’s instructions. Really, I did, but with the force of fifty people trying to help: I was pushed beyond the barrier with them. The wind hit my face, blowing loose hair over my face with such force that it became painful. Instinctively, I pulled my jacket tighter around myself and closed my eyes against the stinging, drying wind. And then it was gone, no more pressure, the hair fell back from my face and I opened my eyes, blinking them to clear my vision. My heart was beating wildly, but I’d no reason to be scared, I hadn’t moved but ten feet to the left. The sight was a mess of papers and measuring devices and shattered glass screens, no one was hurt save a few scratched up responders who’d been knocked into the glass. A crowd of people stood in a ring, three layers deep, I could barely see through it to whatever it was so fascinated them.

_“Did he just?…”_

_“He came out of the cloud?”_

I pushed forward through the crowd.

_“You’re kidding, man?”_

_“Dude, no way”_

“Hey, let me through.” I snapped

_“What is he?”_

_“Is it even human?”_

I broke through the inner circle, a few paramedics and a scientist I vaguely recognized from the astronomy laboratory had gathered around a body. A boy, maybe two or three years younger than myself; fifteen or sixteen, lay crumpled on the ground. He had pale skin and light brown hair and was nearly unrecognizable in youth, but the shape of his mouth and nose seemed to betray who it was.

_“Frank!”_

A paramedic looked up at me.

“You know him?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Uh, he resembles Frank Walker, the man who got sucked in. He looks like him a lot actually.”

“He’s alive… barely.” the other paramedic muttered, shoving a needle into ‘Franks’s’ arm. “Clear everyone out of here, we need to take him to the hospital.”

I stepped back with the crowd as they brought in a stretcher to load ‘Frank’ onto it.

Someone grabbed my hand. “Casey!” 

I looked down at Nate’s anxious face.

“Is he dead? Who is that? Where did he come from?”

“No, he’ll live, Nate. I’m not sure on the other two, where’s Dad?”

“Over there, helping some lady who got a cut.” He pointed out our father, chatting amicably with an elderly scientist with dark skin, greying hair and kind eyes.

“Can you tell him I went to the hospital and that I think the teenager from the cloud is Mr. Walker?”

Nate looked confused. “You do?”

“Yes, now will you tell him?”

“Okay.” Nate promised, albeit irritably.

As soon as I broke free of the barriers, I pulled out my phone and dialed Soraya’s assistant. I knew she’d never have her phone on in the lab, but I needed to tell her I wouldn’t be back in a short period of time.

Her assistant, Salim, picked up on the third ring.

“Hello? Miss Newton?” “

"Yeah, hey Salim, no, no, it seems to be under more control now. We’re not sure what happened and I am on my way to the hospital to figure out something with Mr. Walker.”

“You will not be back to start tonight?” he asked, sounding disappointed.

“Depends on how long this takes. Can you stick around in the lab for twenty minutes and I’ll give you a call?”

“Yeah..”

“Thank you, okay, goodbye.” I hung out and shoved the device back in my pocket, setting off at a faster pace towards the monorail that was stopping ahead of me. I had to sprint the last ten meters to make it on time. And I collapsed against a seat, attracted the stares of a few young astronaut cadets. I hoped one day, when I was twenty-one to be part of that, but these ones were being awfully judgmental. It wasn’t far by the monorail to get to the hospital, three stops on the right line. I spent the five minute ride staring at the city below me through the vehicle’s glass floor. It was all so beautiful, and usually it calmed me to look at but my nerves were tight in my throat and in my chest, constricting my breathing.

A cool vaguely feminine voice announced the hospital as one of the attractions near the stop, I stood numbly. The stares of the cadets were more sympathetic then judgmental as they predicted that there was some emergency. As soon as I was off the monorail, I ran the next two blocks to the hospital, barging through the grand glass doors. The nurse at the desk looked alarmed.

“Can I help you?”

“An unknown person was just brought in from an accident near Danger Site, I need to see him.”

“Honey, we can’t just let anyone see anyone.” he said patronizingly.

“Just call and see if they’ve run a scan on his DNA, I can help identify him.”

I fixed the nurse with a firm stare and exasperated he picked up the phone and punched in a number.

“Yeah, the patient just brought it, we have a girl downstairs asking to see him, something about identification. Have you done any identification scans?” — “Uh, okay, thank you. Should I send her up? — Okay, all right, thank you.” he hung up the phone. “They’ve already identified his DNA as being Frank Walker.”

“Yes, I know!”

“Honey, your friend’s a little different from the last time you saw him, the Danger Site did things to his body. He’s in a coma right now, and he’s a bit younger than you remember him.”

“I saw him! Wait… a coma? You have to let me see him, please!” I was nearly shouting at this point.

_Why? Why? What had happened? Why now? How and how do we fix it?_

“Honey, you’re in no state to be seeing any patient. Come back later when you’re calm, and have proof that you’re even allowed to see him.”

 

Defeated I stormed out of the hospital and pulled out my phone again. _Coma_ , the word rolled around in my brain as I dialed Salim again.

“Hey Casey” He said easily as he picked up. “Any news on the mystery patient?”

_Coma._

“He’s Mr. Walker, but the Site did something to him, he’s so young now.”

_Coma… I didn’t want to lose him._

“What?”

“Like it reversed aging or something.”

_Coma… Wait! Salim, Soraya, our project, Frank! She would help._

“How soon can we finish her?”


	2. Asking is NOT an Effective Method of Breaking and Entering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Casey employs the help of an old friend in waking Frank. Things do not go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still should've been studying. Still wasn't.

**TL: Robotics Laboratory June 15 2016, 1100 hours- Casey Newton**

Well, we did it. I marveled through my exhaustion, I stared down at our creation, laying out on the white table, eyes closed. Soraya, Salim and two other technicians stood around the table with me.

“She looks older than the picture.” Soraya muttered. “I may have made a mistake with hormone synthesizing.”

“Eh, it can only be three or four years physically.” I shrugged it off, she looked much the same, familiar face, hair, stature, the eyes we’d given her. She looked for all the world like the same girl we’d lost the day we came to this place. “If she works, I wouldn’t care if she were thirty.”

Salim yawned enormously. “Are we starting her up now, or are we allowed to sleep?”

“No! We have to try it!” Soraya protested, hitting him on the arm. “May I, Casey?”

I nodded, suddenly my nerves overtook my pride. What if she wasn’t the same? What if I’d failed to recover some of Nix’s programming? What if she wasn’t Athena?

Too late to turn back now. Soraya popped open the panel in the shoulder and activated her.

For a moment nothing happened. Then a twitch of the fingers. A faint puff of air escaped her mouth. Her eyelids fluttered open.

“You’re not very funny” a recording played from somewhere in her. She gasped and sat bolt upright and made a gasping sound. “Wha-at.” her vocal box adjusted slowly to sound more human, less automated.

We stared at her in shock, none of us really said anything.

“Casey Newton.” Athena said.

I stared back at her.

“Are you going to say something or just stare at me?” she demanded impatiently.

“She seems to be working well.” One of the technicians muttered, he was looking at readings on a computer.

“Yes, surprisingly.” Athena said impatiently. “Given that the last thing I remember is dying. What exactly is going on here?”

I tried for a nervous smile. “We were able to rebuild you.”

“June fifteenth, two-thousand and sixteen. It has been an approximate year.” she pondered, out loud but seemingly to herself.

“Why?”

“Because we could.”

Athena seemed to accept that as it was, a logically sound answer. She looked at each of us. She was looking for Frank, her last memory would’ve been of, whatever it was that had happened before he dropped her into the machine.

“Frank isn’t here right now, Athena. In fact there’s something I should catch you up on.”

Athena didn’t look quite as alive in that moment, the curious light behind her eyes was gone.

I prefaced my explanation with a description of the Site and what it seemed to be doing. I waited for her to ask some sort of question, there was a long pause.

“Frank was taken in when it reacted.” Athena said flatly, not asking a question but still demanding confirmation.

“Yes, and then it uh- spit him back out for lack of a better word. But he’s in the hospital now, and it did something to him, he’s younger now.”

Athena knit her eyebrows, she remained silent but her struggle to process the new development was apparent.

“He has returned to his former physical state, I assume from his mid-teenage years from seeing him.”

Athena raised her eyes to the ceiling, her fingers twitched again grabbing at the pristine white fabric of the shift she wore. I felt a little envy at how calmly she was programmed to take and think through bad news, I tended to act impulsively and ask too many questions all at once. It must take a special human to be jealous of a robot, I can’t say I’ve met too many people who are fond of the audio-animatronic recruiters and citizens that we have running around. It’s sad really, they cannot bring themselves to trust them even though any animatronic is extremely mentally and physically capable of protecting and helping us.

**TL: Robotics Lab, June 15 1130 hours- Athena**

I kept my eyes fixated on the ceiling, concentrating on the feeling of fabric between my fingers, thin but soft material that felt alien against my new fingers. How could I be back, I remember dying, the sensation of falling, fast moving air against my sensors, pain in my chest, and Frank. The pressure exploding outwards as my self destruct went into effect. And then I woke up here, had time passed at all? Casey Newton said it had been a year, but I can’t comprehend it, the memories are too closely entwined, the two freshest thoughts in my head.

I thought to shift my eyes, inspect the area where my fatal wound had been. The pain was gone and I felt right, but this form that I took was different. I was longer and bigger, my feet were so far away, my chest larger then I remembered, my hands were less childlike with long fingers. I turned my eyes to look at Casey.

“It’s different then I remember.”

Casey nodded. “My colleague Soraya made a little error when synthesizing your organic materials, her hormone estimations were a little high, it progressed the growth of everything else about three years. I didn’t think it would be too bad. You're forty-something mentally anyways."

“Fifty-eight.” I said bluntly.

“I need your help Athena.”

I waited for her to tell me what I would be doing.

“We need to break into the hospital to see Frank. I thought you would… help. You obviously meant a lot to him and sometimes hearing can bring people back when they’re in a coma.”

Casey was blabbering, I deciphered her meaning but she kept on and on about how she ‘ _just thought_ ’ it really was annoying when that girl got started talking about nothing.

What she was asking wasn’t a lot, perhaps unlawful but abiding by those had never gotten me anywhere. I was programmed with obedience to my purpose, not the law. I felt nervous, I am not programmed to feel nervous, but a somewhat familiar and slightly ill sensation boiled in my stomach. My relationship with Frank had always been tumultuous at best, and more often then not; painful. As an adult, he gained an acceptance of me for me; an audio animatronic. But as a young teenager, the discovery was what broke us in the first place. And what had become of his mind in that void Casey spoke of? Would he remember our last encounters? Or would he forget me altogether? I could not decide on which would be worse or why I was able care at all.

“Stop talking.” I ordered after an approximate minute. “I can get us in.”

 

Casey handed me clothes, similar to the outfit I’d been wearing when I met her; a green t-shirt, hooded sweater and jean jacket, red tennis shoes and jeans that were a bit too big. Casey wore her pants shorter, cut off just above her knees I’d noticed. _Summer weather_. But I am not bothered by heat or cold, longer pants covered the barely concealed panel on my right calf. The panel which controlled the nervous system in the lower half of my body. Humans were bothered by the sight of such things, I’d found, they were more at ease if they could be ignorant of the wires of which I was made.

Casey handed me a hair elastic, I stared at it, recognizing the object but unsure of how to use it.

Casey grinned. “You have no idea how to use that.”

 

Once Casey was satisfied with her double checking of my systems and vitals, we left the robotics laboratory and travelled down a brightly lit corridor. From the lack of windows, I assumed that the lab was underground.

Casey yawned enormously. “Haven’t slept in thirty hours at least.” she said through her yawn.

Fatigue. I do not know what it is to feel fatigue. I said nothing.

“How are you going to get us in?” Casey asked, a clear attempt to make conversation.

“I was thinking I’d just ask to see him to begin with and if that doesn’t work, make them let me through with physical force.”

 

I thought asking would work well. Correction: Asking is not an effective method of breaking in. So, as Casey said, Plan B it was, from behind the desk I disabled security cameras- a click on the keyboard with my right index finger. Knocked out the attendant- a sharp blow to his temple with my knuckles. Used the roster laying on the desk to locate Frank Walker’s room number- my eyes scanning quickly down lines and lines of names and numbers. I took the attendant’s Identification Badge as a precaution- thin plastic, withdrawn from his pocket between my left forefinger and thumb. A flick of my wrist sent the card spinning towards Casey waiting in front of the desk.

“Room One Hundred and Thirteen.”

Casey nodded and started towards the stairwell.

I hesitated, I had helped her now, but something held me back from going with her. What if I do not help Frank? Casey would undoubtably be hurt and angry that we could do nothing to help him. Humans always blamed their hurt on something or someone that may have not had the power to help at all, Frank Walker taught me that. I was hopeless, unable to imagine the future, was I not the future? What on Earth had changed?

“Athena?”

Frank Walker was in danger. Would things be different for me if he weren’t?

“It’s okay to be scared Athena.” Casey said placatingly. “Frank can be downright terrifying.”

“I am not programmed to feel fear.” I said automatically.

Casey made a pained face. “You have a flaw.”

I think I might regret Casey hearing my final message to Frank.

“I’m not going to ask you about how you feel about this, but I can’t let Frank go if there’s something that might help.” Casey pleaded. “I’m asking you to help.”

I saw no true logical reason to be afraid, though I was. Not being able to explain different sensations, I couldn’t really object to her plea with good reasoning, forcing my feet to move, one after the other, I followed her up the stairs.

Room One Hundred and Thirteen was two doors down the corridor to the left of the staircase.

Casey unlocked the unusual metal door using the stolen identification badge and pushed the door open.

The boy on the bed was overwhelmed by tubes and wires, thin tubes snaked into his nostrils, an endotracheal tube conceal his mouth to facilitate breathing. An electrode was connected to his temple and an IV tube and blood pressure monitors in the crook of his elbow. But, if I knew anything, I knew the boy was Frank Walker. My heart was speeding up, I couldn’t seem to stabilize my feet walking forward, I leaned against the door frame for a moment. I couldn’t fully form an order to my feet to regain control.

“He’s sleeping Athena, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

I moved forward slowly, coming to a stop before the monitors that measured Frank’s vital signs. I couldn’t look at him closely.

“They were wrong. He is unconscious, but this vital signs show incredible brain activity for anyone in a coma.” I announced to Casey who had knelt by Frank’s side.

“Unconscious then?” Casey asked hopefully.

“I don’t know. But they were wrong about a coma. It may be as unique as his circumstances.” My audio sensors caught the sound of Casey standing and moving away from the bed, by the sound of it, to stand in the corner.

I turned impulsively at the noise and Casey waved her hand towards Frank, a vague signal for me to approach him.

Frank looked as he had when he had been expelled from Tomorrowland all those years ago, his light brown hair was closely cut, his skin was slightly darker than mine, colored from the sun, unmarked by time and age. I knew his eyes would be the same, they always had been over half a century, but I could not see them. He was so tall to me in my former body, he didn’t seem as tall and grand as I’d always thought now that I had a taller form. It wasn’t in my to want, but I wanted lay a hand on his cheek, my sensors picked up warmth from his cheek. Real. Alive. Words that flooded my brain trying to describe the feeling, I’d so rarely experienced this type of touch, the wires in my head took a paralyzing moment to remember.

I glanced over at Casey, she was on the phone to her father, her conversation whispered so low that even my sensors had difficulty picking out words.

“Hello, Frank Walker.” I whispered. “I’m Athena, do you remember me? I recruited you to come to Tomorrowland, we grew up here, together. I always admired you so, your brilliant ideas and creations. You were my best friend you know. You thought I didn’t feel because I was an audio-animatronic or that you were easily replaced by someone who better suited my missions. You were wrong, you left, I never found another Frank Walker, none of my recruits were like you. You gave up hope so soon Frank Walker, in the end, I know you get it back and then I was the one leaving. I hope you do remember when you wake up, we’re both here now, like before. You saved Tomorrowland, come back to it, we need you.”

In my peripheral vision, I noted that Casey staring at us out of the corner of her eye. Trying to hid her curiosity. I turned my eyes back to Frank and then shifted them upwards to look at the screens monitoring his vitals. Nothing had changed.

“Keep talking. I’m going to step outside to make a call.”

There was nothing left to say to him, there wasn’t more that I wanted to say to him. To explain or excuse being an audio-animatronic to him was useless, I would not change. I didn’t chose to be animatronic, I do not feel strongly about changing, I am not programmed to think about the benefits of humanity or the benefits of artificial intelligence.

The door shut heavily behind Casey, my hand slide down Frank’s cheek limply, falling, to rest on his shoulder. I stared at my hand, aware of how little control I’d have over that one simple action. Years of thinking through the sequence of thoughts for any movement had worn down to an impulse.

“Frank.” I murmured, willing myself to bend at the waist, bringing my face a bit closer to his. I opened my mouth to say something more to him, _crash,_ something hit the wall outside the room. I heard Casey yelp.

The door burst open, admitting an android security guard and an elderly human doctor.

Casey followed behind them, rubbing her head and looking unhappy. “Wait- hey… if you’d just let me explain-“

The automaton guard lunged towards me.


	3. Lying Isn't Worth the Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Conflicts at the hospital drive Casey to fight with the staff and Athena thinks about her past with the patient.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Math final is over. Still should have been studying for French final though....

**Room 113, West Side Hospital, June 16 2016, 1300 hours - Athena**

The automaton man was quick, but I am equally fast. I darted to the side, consciously leading him away from the bed. Raise your hand in surrender. I lifted one hand over my head, the automaton grabbed my wrist and wrapped my arm around my neck. Casey was holding two hands above her head. _Correction: It is two hands up to surrender._ I noted. I shoved my elbow over my shoulder, making contact with the guard’s face, he dropped me in a stunned moment. I twisted out of the way.

“Cut it out!” Casey shouted. “This is not how you deal with security problems… well, not this security problem at least.”

The elderly medical professional who had stood back during the small confrontation held up one hand in front of his face. In response, the guard turned away from me and let his arms fall to his sides.

“If you’d so prefer to talk through things, put your own security-“ He raised his chin in my direction. “-at ease and you’d better had a damn good reason for this.”

“First of all, she’s not security, she’s Athena. And second of all we tried to ask to see him twice and he has no living family to speak of, not by blood. Someone should be with him, someone he knew.” Casey was confident in her reasoning and disobedience.

“It is against policy, you’ll have to go.” The doctor was steadfast in his position as well.

“Are you a medical professional sir?”

“Uh- yes.”

“Then you must know of and have seen the psychological effects of illness and injury, can you imagine the amplification of those emotions when this boy wakes up in his former body? There’s nothing you and your staff will be able to do to adjust him to all this, he’s going to need her.” Casey pointed at me. “And maybe not me, but she’s known him for a very long time.”

“I’m sorry. I sympathize with your cause, but our rules do not accommodate for that.”

“Then maybe it is time to change them.” Casey snarked, folding her arms over each other against her chest. She raised her eyebrows as though issuing a challenge.

“It is a security risk to our patients, there is no proof that is truly your cause, or if you even have a connection with Mr. Walker.”

Casey looked indignant. “ _Read a news report, from a year ago! I’m Casey Newton, she’s an audio-animatronic, we were there with him._ Either you let us stay, or we’re coming back later. And this one, my ‘security’? She’s programmed from kicking butt.”

Now Casey was just making threats. Regardless, I felt that small, warm feeling in my chest at Casey’s last words.

The doctor looked crushed. “I’ll ask the administration.” he turned to the security bot. “You’re staying here and watch them.” He moved out of the room, purposefully and clearly angrily.

“Okay, that was kind of awesome.” Casey grinned. “They’re definitely going to let us stay. Are you okay? Mr. Nasty over there had your arm pretty tight.”

I assumed she was referring to the robot who had attacked me. “There are no issues.”

Casey collapsed into the chair that was behind her against the wall. “God, I have to sleep.” she muttered, closing her eyes. A moment later, they suddenly opened again, looking alarmed. “Promise me you’re not going to leave if I go to sleep.”

I nodded sharply.

Casey breathed out, looking more relaxed and closed her eyes again. I moved towards Frank again, bending my knees to sit on the edge of the bed. I couldn’t think clearly about how it had been a long time since I’d seen him like this. The image brought back memories recorded in my programming as if they’d happened but moments ago.

_My hand linked with Frank’s as I pulled him towards the monorail, I still cannot recall another time at which I smiled so much. We were on our way to the lab, we were going to work on his new invention, Frank built a machine that would move through time. One that would let us look forward to our future, one that would let us look back at our history. It was nearly Frank’s fourth year in Tomorrowland, and I had never been more impressed by one of his ideas._

_My hair was slightly damp and heavy hanging down loosely my back. David Nix recommended that I occasionally let Frank see my hair wet, or pretend to be asleep in order to act more human. He was very invested in that idea, I was not._

_We jumped aboard the monorail at the last moment and as per usual, Frank had a moment or disorientation looking through the glass floor to the city beyond. I held his arm to keep him steady. He was getting taller, I was staying the same; that particular day, the imbalance of physics in size, motion and mental awareness did not seem to be alined._

_He stumbled, almost knocking me over when I was unprepared to respond, I didn’t fall far at all before he caught me around the waist and pulled me upright._

_“Got’cha.” he smiled._

_That slightly worrisome, warm, tight feeling in my chest returned as my heart rate spiked. “Thank you.” I said, pulling away, tempering the action with a wide smile._

_Quickly recovering from the slight discomfort caused by the moment, I took his hand and pulled him over to look at the holographic map of where the monorail lines went. At one of the stops, they were installing a device he had created to make stopping the monorail more efficient._

_“Frank Walker, you are a true genius.” I told him, as he admired the name of the stop where his device was being implanted._

_I looked to my left, Mr. Nix was sitting a few seats down, staring at me with disapproval. Later that day he chided me, chided me for getting too close to Frank, chided me for getting wrapped up in things that were not my purpose._

_But at the time I tried to make as though he wasn’t there, Frank wasn’t to know that I was taking orders. It felt unnatural to lie to Frank, I found myself increasingly want to tell him the truth._

The doctor who Casey had argued with, reentered the room, and I immediately dropped my train of thought to focus on his message. “The administration has found valid evidence in your favor and has decided to grant Casey Newton and the audio-animatronic the ability to visit and or stay with the patient Frank Walker unobserved by security personnel present in the room during Walker’s recovery.”

Casey opened her eyes sleepily. “Wha-?” She yawned, unable to completely form the word.

“We are permitted to stay with Frank.” I told her before turning my eyes back to the Doctor. “Thank you.” I said flatly.

He nodded grudgingly and motioned for the robot guard to accompany him out of the room. The door shut with a quiet _click_ behind them. I turned towards Casey to say something, but she had already fallen back asleep. Craning my neck to see the clock on the wall, it was much later than I had anticipated, 2000 hours already, I noted for the first time, the absence of sunlight streaming in through the window.

I leaned over until my head rested next to Frank’s on the pillow and my torso was supported by the mattress. I lifted my feet off the floor, drawing my knees closer to my torso. I lay there, facing Frank and for the first time thinking that had I the ability to sleep, I might get a few moments away from the things running through the wires in my head.

_I raced down the corridor to Frank’s room, my heart was pumping wildly. I did not think of knocking, but merely opened the door and walked in._

_Frank was standing near his bed, sorting through clothes and stowing them in his old duffle-bag. He looked up in surprise and it quickly switched to anger. “What are you doing here?”_

_Nix informed me that he was leaving, I told him what Nix had said._

_“They’ve asked me to leave Tomorowland.” Frank said bluntly._

_"Why would they do that?” I demanded, furiously._

_“_ _There’s no hope, you saw what became of the world, of humanity? Not that it would matter to you, you don’t hope, you don’t feel fear or anger at what will and is happening. You don’t think of what happens to humanity, it doesn’t compute in your wires does it? I don’t have enough hope to be part of this ‘grand society’ you have here.” Frank yelled, glaring at me as though he could pin everything that went wrong on me._

_It felt like his words weakened something inside me, my chest felt hollowed out. “Frank… Isn’t there something I could say to Nix?”_

_“There isn’t anything you can do, God, can’t you see? This is all your fault, you brought me to this place! Your lies about who you were for seven years, Athena, damn it. ‘Oh, you’re such a genius Frank, look at all your great, beautiful creations’. Let me tell you, the same will happen to all the recruits you’ll replace me with later because you’re incapable of feeling or knowing the consequences of telling a lie! You are the one who gave me hope in the first place!” He zipped the duffle bag closed with such force I thought he might break it off._

_"I don't understand." He had the hope all along, why was this so bad?_

_"You're a machine, you don't understand sadness, disappointment... or love. And you lied to me, all these years."_

  _“I didn’t mean to Frank, I wanted to tell you, I swear, Nix said I mustn’t let you know.”_

_“You can’t want, don’t be ridiculous Athena. Get it through your wires, this mission is over. Terminated. Do you understand me?”_

_The hollow feeling grew inside me, how could he not understand me, after everything, after seven years._

_“Please, don’t leave, Frank, stay… There is still work to be done.”_

_“And there it is, your true interest, not in me or in anything that I am, but what I produce and how it is of use to you.”_

_Oh, Frank, I was only interested in you and what you were. What you could do led me to that. I’d reached out and placed my hand over his then. “Frank, I’ll miss you if you leave.”_

_“Missing isn’t it your programming. You’re an animatronic, you can’t feel it.” he snapped, shaking my hand off of his, he muttered under his breath, thinking I couldn’t hear him. “But I will.”_

_He pushed past me, almost knocking me to the ground in my shock, he didn’t close the door behind him and had disappeared by the time I reached the corridor._

_He walked through the bridgeway, back to Earth but an hour later, he didn’t look back. The hollow feeling in my chest gave way to a painful rather than elated tightness, I felt as though I were shattering into many pieces, and I felt the pain_.

Something hit my leg drawing my attention back to the present, I hadn’t realized that my eyes had drifted closed in my thought. I briefly focused on opening them. Then a surprised voice rough from not being used exclaimed:

“Athena?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I think we all know who that was... stay tuned!


	4. Casey Newton: Psychologist for Robots (Hooray...)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frank is forced to confront Athena and their past together, and Casey is forced to deal with the fact that things have changed with Frank.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NO MORE FINALS HECK YA! (And Frank gets in on the action now.)

**TL: West Side Hospital, June 16 2016, 0 hours- Frank Walker**

The room was dark, my eyes adjusted easily to the dark, there was something blocking my airway, covering my mouth. I raised a hand to my mouth, a breathing tube? I pulled up on it, removing the mouthpiece from my lips, the tape holding it down tore, stinging against my face. Still couldn’t breathe properly, making a noise was impossible through the tube. I was sweating, shaking, a bit numb and very confused, I pulled on the tube, hard, the rest of the tube slid through my trachea and throat. It came out easily, but the motion against the sensitive rarely touched area of my trachea hurt. Air, breathed in using my airway flooded my lungs, I let the air leave my lungs in relief and discarded the tube on the floor next to the bed.

A muscle in my left calf spasmed moving my leg a bit to the side, I kicked something. Not expecting anything to be there, I turned my head in surprise. Where the hell was I?

A girl lay curled beside me, her eyes were open and brilliantly blue even in the semi-dark room, her hair was dark and her skin pale. She wore street clothes and appeared to be about fourteen or fifteen years old. Despite being differently aged then I recalled, I’d recognize her anywhere. It was Athena. The robot girl I’d left behind in that place last year.

_“Athena?”_

“Hello Frank Walker.” she said steadily, but I suspected she hadn’t anticipated whatever this would happen.

“What happened to you?” I demanded. “What are you doing here?”

Without answering, the girl got up and walked to the other side of the room, typical. No concept of humanity. I could hear her talking and my eyes vaguely made out another figure on the other side of the room.

“Frank?” A voice that wasn’t Athena’s called, the figure stood up and rushed towards me. She was maybe seventeen or eighteen years old, light hair and her face was in shadows. “You’re awake!” She exclaimed, she sounded joyful and relieved.

I had the oddest feeling that I knew her, a name came to mind Casey Newton.

“Do I know you?” I asked.

Casey shrank back, whispering. “Athena, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is she your new recruit, Athena?”

“Yes. Frank, what do you remember?”

I knew it would happen, Athena’s purpose in the world was to find recruits, but I was just irrationally angry to realize that I was right, she would replace me with some other, brighter, more optimistic kid.

“What do you mean how much do I remember? No, I don’t remember whichever accident got me here.”

“Do you remember returning to Tomorrowland?”

_Ah, what the hell?_

“Tomorrowland?” I demanded, there was no way I went back there, there was something fishy going on here. “Athena, what did you do?”

“Okay, he really doesn’t remember.” Casey muttered to Athena, they weren’t being as subtle as Casey thought they were. “It’s not Athena’s fault, it’s mine.” she raised her voice for me to ‘hear’.

Athena leaned over, placing her hand on my shoulder. “Frank, you must be scared… Relax a little. I’m not going to let anything happen to you here. It’s much safer now.”

What had I been thinking about again?

“Frank, please.” Athena smiled at me kindly. “Can you tell me what the last thing you remember is?”

The last thing I remember was the utter desolation and confusion that I felt returning to the world after seven years in Tomorrowland. Trying to find my way home after so many years. With no money, no means of survival, it was difficult. But I’d made it, when I reached the farmhouse where I’d grown up, with the familiar, old, black, mailbox that said ‘Walker’ and wide fields. It was abandoned and overgrown. I snuck in the way I’d always done, the last thing I remember was going to bed one of the many nights I spent there.

“Going to bed.” I said. “In the old farm house where I grew up.”

Casey clapped a hand over her mouth in horror. Athena wasn’t smiling anymore.

“What year is it?” she asked, an edge behind her voice.

“1970.”

Casey looked sympathetic, she laid a hand on Athena’s shoulder as though to comfort her.

Perhaps I should’ve warn her that Athena is animatronic.

“Why do you look so old?” I asked Athena bluntly.

“Rude.” Casey snorted as though she were joking.

“It’s a terribly long story.” Athena answered, almost apprehensively.

“Athena, he took out his breathing tube-y thingy.” Casey was clearly a little concerned.

Athena waved it off. “It’s not dangerous, he seems to be breathing all right.”

“I think the intelligent thing to do is get a medical professional? How are they not already alerted of this?” Casey protested.

“I made sure of it.” Athena commented offhandedly.

“Athena!” Casey protested. “You aren’t a medical professional! You’re not even programmed like that. You’re going to get him killed.”

Well, the cat is out of the bag on Athena’s in-humanity.

“He’ll be all right.” Athena dismissed. “His brain is the concern right now. Now, a moment please?”

Casey nodded and dismissed herself, saying something about calling some scientists. And I, well, I was left alone with Athena. TL:

**West Side Hospital, June 16 2016 100 hours- Athena**

I sat facing Frank on the edge of his bed, unsure of how to begin the explanation, there was so much that I did not know myself. _How had Frank’s life played out? Did he have a wife or children? His parents?_ What was his life like here in Tomorrowland since he’d returned? He was clearly close friends and coworkers with Casey and had been working at the Site, that was all I knew.

“It’s the year 2016, Frank.” I began. “And I’ve met a much older version of you, that’s why you are back here.”

“Excuse me?”

“Let me talk.”

So I explained to him that he had lived out much of his life on Earth as an inventor, I told him I didn’t know if he’d had family or if he’d stayed alone in the house all those years. I told him that Nix threw me out of Tomorrowland. I told him about his well-guarded house, and how I met Casey. I told him that I’d given away many pins, but all had failed, until I met Casey. I told him of rescuing Casey at the shop and bringing her to see him. That an attack from Nix’s hostile animatronics against myself and Casey and how it caught him in the chain of events that happened after. Our trip in the Mover and Shaker to Paris and subsequent trip to Tomorrowland via the Eiffel Tower, relic of another World Fair. I explained the fate of Tomorrowland in Nix’s hands to him and the problems with the Oracle he had built. When I told him about the almost-apocalypse, I thought he would cry for shame at what his machine had done. I told him that I’d been injured in the ensuing fight when I tried to save him, I explained that his time machine had been destroyed when my self-destruct activated inside it. I told him that it was my first idea and that he’d inspired it, I did not tell him the other things.

“You and Casey restarted the recruiter program with various new animatronics in order to rebuild Tomorrowland. And that’s been your work for the past year with Casey. Casey meanwhile has been recovering my programming and working with a small team to rebuild me. Then the time hole created by the explosion of the Oracle sucked you in and returned you as this, we do not yet understand why.”

Frank didn’t say anything for a long time, he stared at the wall opposite his bed, dumbfounded.

I did not know if he was still angry with me, he seemed to take me quite seriously while I talked, but it would never be that easy with Frank.

I stood up, thinking he’d want a moment to himself and moved towards the door, he didn’t stop me when I left.

**TL: West Side Hospital, June 16 2016, 200 hours- Casey Newton**

I sat on the floor outside Frank’s room, my back pressed to the wall and my knees pulled to my chest. I was insanely curious to know what Athena was going to say or do to Frank to help him. But no matter how I strained my ears, I could not hear anything being said, then the door opened and Athena walked out.

“Athena?”

The robot girl turned her head quickly towards me, she hadn’t been watching for me and seemed caught unawares.

“Hello.” she returned, leaning against the wall and then sliding down it to sit beside me.

“How’s Frank?”

“I explained to him what events I knew of, about your meeting him and our journey and conflict with Nix. There are many things I don’t know about his life after Tomorrowland. Approximately fifty years of his life that I can’t explain to him.”

Athena recited the words with a blank look on her face, far different then the girl I remembered telling me rather excitedly about Tomorrowland in the front seat of a pick-up truck in the middle of God-knows where. She wouldn’t cry, or frown, or scowl, or have trouble speaking through grief or anger. But she seemed hopeless, the thing Athena was programmed always to be was hopeful. Now, I understood some of Frank’s ‘past’ issues with Athena being a robot, I’d worked through the night with a deliriously tired Frank more than once on our recruiter animatronics. I don’t know exactly what was said, but his hatred had apparently been made very clear to Athena before he left Tomorrowland as a kid. And it was very clearly still an issue for him when we worked together to save Tomorrowland until Athena died. The reintegration of Athena was never going to be easy, but it felt right for so many reasons. But it didn’t occur to me to ask Athena what she thought about Frank’s detestation of artificial intelligence. Why am I in the middle of this again? Freaking out and not thinking things through completely; _Note to self: Stop doing it._

“He didn’t have kids or anything if that’s the sort of thing you’d tell him.”

No response.

“Athena, did Frank ever say anything to you about his not liking you being animatronic?”

“Yes, he did, on the day he left Tomorrowland.”

“And what did you think about that?” I carefully avoided mentioning emotional words like “feel”.

_Casey Newton; unofficial psychologist for robots, hooray._

“It was not very nice to hear, I was so sure that he would be more accepting and he did not understand at all. I never understood why it made him so angry.”

I knew why, it was self-explanatory to me as a human, but it wasn’t my secret to share.

I didn’t tell her.

“What does he think now?” Me.

“I can’t be certain, but I think he does not trust me because of it.” Her.

“You don’t want to be human, do you?” Me.

“Of course not.” Her.

I was relieved to hear it.

 

“I saved him Casey, I died to save him. Did he know that?”

“Of course he knew that. It made him very sad but grateful too. He accepted you at the end, he felt guilty for waiting so long I believe.”

Athena placed her hands over her face. “I did not always understand Frank. I did not understand his claim that I gave him hope and took it from him. He said it was because I am a machine, that I don’t understand sadness, or disappointment or love. But he’d always had hope, I don’t believe it was my doing.”

Whoever says that audio-animatronic machines are not sentient have another thing coming for them, Athena would not cry, but I could certainly do it for her. Her thoughts, or as I would rather say, emotions were astounding.

“He understood it in the end, he knew he was right about you and right to believe in you. He knew your relationship with emotion ran deeper then just comprehension and we’re going to make him understand again.”

“Casey, you worked with my programming, did you not? Franks says that I don’t feel emotions therefore I don’t understand him. I care. I have ideas. And I am in love with Frank.-“

Surprising how easy machines come out and say things like that, a human wouldn’t dare, an illogical human thing that artificial intelligence wouldn’t go for.

“-You could fix the flaw in my empathy interface.”

Funny thing, that, there is no flaw. I made sure I was looking for that at it could be potentially dangerous, but the programming had been perfect.

“God, Athena, there’s nothing to be done. You don’t have a flaw in your empathy interface, it’s just how you are.” I put my arm around Athena instinctively, like I would with Nate when he was upset. She stiffened for a moment probably confused, but finding that it was an unthreatening gesture she returned to her default state.

We sat there for a very long time, listening to florescent lights buzz above us and the inhale and exhale of my breath, until the monotony was split by the sound of Frank Walker’s scream.


	5. Frank Frank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Medical exploration of Frank's circumstances begin much to his chagrin. Athena and Casey try to help him come to terms with alarming circumstances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the timing of Frank's leaving Tomorrowland, so that it happened when he was sixteen rather than twenty-thirty years or whatever it was. Him finding out about Athena and leaving Tomorrowland would've happened within months of each other. Mostly to adjust age gaps and stuff.... Just FYI

**TL: West Side Hospital, June 16 2016, 300 hours - Casey Newton**

Athena was up and gone before I could respond, the door shut behind her when she didn’t take the time to hold it open. I stood up and followed Athena at a more human pace. Frank was laying down, no one but the three of us was in the room. And Frank was sleeping. And yelling. Probably a nightmare, or something. My heart rate slowed, realizing he wasn’t in any danger.

“What’s wrong with him?” Athena asked quickly, panicky. “Why is he making that sound? Frank, please stop, what’s wrong?”

I raised my eyebrows. “He’s. Dreaming.”

“Seems awfully unpleasant.”

“… Athena!”

“What!” she turned back to Frank when he called her.

 

There was the sound of footsteps pounding down the hall, the door was flung open and a guard and two female doctors stepped inside, the light flickered on dousing the room in white light. They crossed quickly to the bed, nodding at me. The guard tried to move Athena out of the way, when she resisted he wrapped his arms around her, immobilizing her arms and carried her out of the way.

“There’s nothing to worry about.” he told her as he set her down. “Let the nice ladies here do their jobs.”

Athena gave him what might have been a disgusted look for the use of the patronizing phrase “nice ladies”.

 

I privately bemoaned the loss of privacy and sleep that came with hospitals.

 

They woke Frank again without too much difficulty, he’d been in a light sleep. Well there goes my goal of not freaking out when things happen, he’s fine.

Athena crossed to me. “He was dreaming?”

“Have you never heard of a nightmare?”

Athena thought for a moment. “No. I can’t find anything on it.”

“It’s just something that happens sometimes when people go to sleep, they experience fake, bad or frightening stuff. He’s shaken up, so it’s not surprising it happened and got so bad.”

 

One of the doctors stepped over to see us. “Ms. Newton, I’d like to ask you a few questions about the patient.”

I nodded.

“We of course were familiar with the former Mister Walker, but things have very clearly changed, we are going to run tests to find out other effects the Site may have had on his body as well as an approximate physical age. But our psychologists will want to work with him on memories, can we have a quick report of the conversations thus far?”

Athena and I exchanged nervous glances, I saw Frank watching us from his spot on the bed.

“The last thing he remembers is returning home after he was expelled from Tomorrowland back in 1968.” Athena spoke up. “I filled him in as best I could on his life after Tomorrowland and the return to and re-establishment of Tomorrowland within the past year.”

The doctor looked at me in confusion.“Who is this? Your sister?”

“No, this is Athena, she was… is an recruiter here.”

The doctor looked a little taken aback. “Oh, so she’s um, animatronic?”

 _What is with this people? Why do they all have such distrust of machines? Are they not the creators of modern machines and technologies? You’d think they’d have love for them!_ “

If that is going to be a problem, I want Frank to have a different doctor.”

“Of course it’s not a problem.” the doctor amended quickly.

“Anyways, Athena filled him in and then we left the room, he doesn’t remember me and he was angry with her, so we gave him a moment alone. Oh- and he must have taken out his ET-tube when he woke up. - Anyways, we came back in when he started screaming and then you arrived very shortly thereafter.” I explained quickly.

“So, your interactions have been very limited?”

“Yes.”

 

“- How much blood are you going to take out of me?” Frank demanded loudly and angrily.

Our conversation halted and we turned to look at a now sitting Frank, not exactly happy about the 3 test tubes worth of blood being taken.

“Just one more.” the doctor said patiently. “But tests are required to make sure you’re perfectly healthy.”

“I am perfectly healthy.” Frank protested. “But taking my blood’s not helping that.”

The doctor smiled reassuringly. “We are sure of that Mister Walker, but we just need to be a little extra sure.”

Frank scowled as they attached a fourth test tube to the pump and more of his blood seeped out into it.

“Nicely done Mister Walker.” she complimented as she extracted the needle and placed a brown adhesive bandage over the wound. She placed the blood samples in a tray and handed them to her partner who’d recently been surveying Frank’s mental health. “Mister Walker, can you remove your shirt for me please, we want to use this little device to monitor your vitals for a little while. It won’t be for more than 12 hours, we should have more information by then.”

Frank grumbled more about how absolutely fine he would be, but removed his shirt anyways, fortunately, his torso looked uninjured.

I averted my eyes after a moment looking towards Athena, who was busy staring in fascination at Frank and the doctor.

“Thank you.” the doctor said with a smile, stepping away from the bed. “Try to rest and relax a bit sweetheart.” she patted his leg. “We’re just down the hallway if anything happens.”

She motioned for the other doctor to follow her when she left the room. The door swung shut behind them.

 

As soon as they were gone, Frank slid off the bed and stood for barely a moment clutching the rail on the bottom of the bed, before his legs collapsed, dumping him on the floor.

 

**TL: West Side Hospital, June 16 330 hours- Frank Walker**

“Frank!” Casey Newton called out, as she scurried around the bed to where I sat collapsed on the floor.

I hadn’t expected my legs to be so unused to movement, this was mortifying. Casey helped me back to my feet, her hand clamped painfully around my tricep.

“It’s okay.” she said soothingly. I wished people would stop beating around the bush here, treating me too carefully. It made me so angry, and deep down, terrified of what was going on, was I being told the truth? Suddenly I felt very trapped, unable to breathe, I wished Casey would stop holding my arm.

“Casey, let him go.” I heard Athena say.

Casey dropped my arm, I dropped back to sit on the bed, it was getting a lot harder to see or even form coherent thoughts. Tremors ran through my body, I vaguely recognized that my legs were shaking and hitting the metal support beam on the bed. A hand was placed on my shoulder, Casey Newton, she was repeating my name over and over, but I didn’t recognize it. She sat beside me on the bed, saying unintelligible things. Athena’s voice was there saying something in the background. Casey’s arms were around my shoulders.

I had to get out.

 _“Leave me alone!”_ I twisted away from Casey flinging my arms outwards and shaking my head. Bile built up in my throat, further obstructing breathing. My arms made contact with Casey’s body and she moved away quickly, protesting an injury she’d suffered.

 

I was going to be sick. Everything felt so dark, hopeless, small. And I was horrible. Did I really build a Doomsday machine? Push my best friend, and the girl I loved away in such a terrible manner? They and dozens of other failures flooded my mind, consuming any remaining concept of reality.

 

Air flooded into my lungs suddenly, relieving the pressure in my chest and throat. I gasped and choked. Then gagged. I doubled over my thighs, clutching the mattress with my finger tips and vomited. The vomiting made it harder to breathe again, the gasping and shuddering between heaves put a strain on my stomach and lungs. It felt like an eternity but it really can’t have been, I don’t even remember the last time I’d eaten. I collapsed weakly against the bed, still shaking, my hands still clenched, knuckles white. My vision cleared and I was staring down at Athena, who’d apparently knelt in front of me holding the bedpan which now contained a nauseating (not again!) clear liquid mixed with small white solid masses that I did not want to think about.Casey was fighting off a small army of doctors and nurses and guards at the door.

Athena set the bedpan aside and took a paper cup from the side table, filling it with water from the sink a few feet away, she handed it to me silently and then fetched the bedpan again. She waited while I rinsed my mouth, spitting water into the bed pan to clean out the acidic taste. When I’d finished, she thrust it at a nurse who was standing by. She pulled a cloth out of, some drawer, how she’d known it would be there is beyond me. She dampened the cloth in the sink and turned back to me, sitting on the edge of the bed, tactfully not touching me. The cool cloth was soothing against my forehead and I relaxed a little, feeling increasingly more tired. I was able to ignore the swarm of doctors in the room, staring at my vitals on their little screens, but keeping their distances. Casey was sitting in the corner on her phone, glancing nervous over at Athena now and again.

 

I turned my eyes back to Athena who was watching me carefully as she dabbed my face very precisely with the cloth. She didn’t say anything, which in any normal circumstance may have been extremely uncomfortable, but somehow I found it extremely comforting. In my exhaustion and confusion, my anger with her dissipated giving way to more passive thought. I wasn’t sure what I should think of Athena now, the different way our story played out in the end was far cry from my imagining I’d never see her again. She died to save me from Nix, she’d always been the one to save me from Nix. She died and Casey brought her back. Casey who wanted to go to the stars, don’t ask me how I knew that, I felt as though I knew Casey, but it was impossible to place her in my life or recall the adventures we’d had together. But I knew she was Casey, she was eighteen years old, she was from Florida and wanted to be an astronaut because she knew how things worked and loved the stars. I knew Casey and I had had a good relationship, that we had worked together to do things, according to Athena build a small army of droid recruiters. Casey reconstructed a practically perfect Athena 2.0 apparently without my knowing.

“Athena? I’m going to go home for a little while, my dad said he wanted me to come back for a bit.”

Athena turned to look at Casey across a now, suddenly empty room, she set down the cloth and moved towards Casey, as though she intended to follow her.

I didn’t want to be left alone here.

“Wait!” I exclaimed and both girls turned around to look at me in surprise.

“What’s wrong?” Casey asked anxiously.

“I don’t want to just stay here.” I would not admit that I was scared of it.

“I know you have to go back to wherever, but…” Casey looked at Athena pointedly, as though she knew I was trying to ask someone to stay with me.

“I thought you said you wanted me with you.” Athena pointed out, somehow getting the message from Casey’s face.

“No, I told you I was leaving. That’s not the same thing.”

“I’ll stay here with Frank if he’d like.”

Thank God they weren’t just going to leave me here.

Casey leaned down and whispered something to Athena, who in return gave Casey a confused look but nodded anyways.

“Good night you two, try not to kill each other while I’m gone.” 

 

**TL: West Side Hospital, June 16 2016, 400 Hours - Athena**

Casey left to rest, leaving me in another situation in which I would likely have to converse with Frank Walker. I concentrated on walking back towards Frank, trying not to consider things I should like to tell him.

“How are you feeling?” I asked almost automatically, relieving us of silence as I resumed my position sitting beside Frank.

“Tired.” Frank yawned.

He was clearly scared half out of his mind, and tired out of the other half, possibly.

He shut his eyes and leaned back breathing slowly.

“Frank, we’re telling you the truth, even if we can’t explain everything yet. I’m not trying to trick you. Once you are better, we will help you make arrangements for what you want to do. I know you still feel angry with me, for you not much time has passed I see now. But trust us a little, everyone involved is doing what they can to help you.”

Frank nodded lethargically. “You don’t get tired.” He mumbled sleepily.

“It is true. I cannot fall asleep, though, I imagine a brief respite from thought now and again must be nice.”

Frank’s lips turned upwards, a smile. “I wanted you to stay because I am afraid.” He changed topics unexpectedly but effectively. His sleep ridden brain must be seeing a conversation sequence that I cannot.

I readjusted my position to lay beside him on the edge of the bed. “I know.”

 

But Frank Walker, was already sleeping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um... really just a fluffy in-between chapter. Filler stuff. Sorry. More actual story next time


	6. Sphere and Loathing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Athena meets a far too energetic young boy who forces her to question her preoccupation with Frank's health. Frank Walker faces the annoyance brought on by too many doctors fussing over him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, another stupid filler chapter. But just wait for Chapter 8!

**TL: West Side Hospital, June 17 2016, 1000 Hours - Frank Walker**

I woke up to the sound of someone laughing hysterically, opening my eyes somewhat hesitantly, I could just make out Casey standing over the bed, her hands over her mouth barely concealing laughter. I was embarrassed to note that my head was resting against Athena shoulder, but I’m guessing the amusing part is that Athena lay stiff and straight as a board, close enough to the edge of the bed that the slightest push would unbalance her. Her eyes were wide open, staring at Casey as though amused herself.

“Sorry, I- just sorry.” I muttered, feeling my face flush, sitting up quickly

_Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen._

“I was sleeping Casey, give me a break.”

“I’m not laughing at you!” Casey protested. “I’m laughing at Athena.”

Athena remained quiet and still, not inclined to move apparently.

“Anyways.” Casey began, regaining control of herself. “The doctors were just here and took more samples of your blood.”

_Damn. How many did they need?_

“They want to talk over results and psychological topics in an hour.”

“Are they letting me go after that?”

“Let’s hope, right?” Casey replied. “Do you want to shower or eat before you go? You haven’t eaten in a while?”

“I’m more interested in being able to move myself around again.”

“Shower it is in that case.” Casey ordered. “Trust me Frank, you’re not going to regret it. Do you remember showers in Tomorrowland? They’re the most wonderful things.”

In lieu in an answer, I swung my legs over the side of the bed not currently occupied by a robot and forced myself to stand leaning heavily on the bed for support. I found that my legs weren’t as weak as I had expected them to be, perhaps the anxiety from last night had made things harder then I thought. Walking still felt like a bit of a strange motion, I went about it in an ungainly rhythm for the first few feet before I remembered what walking was supposed to feel like.

Casey Newton guided me into the bathroom, watching me like a hawk as I made my way across the floor.

“Hey Athena, I’m sure Frank’s bed is great and all, but how about you go get breakfast for him.” Casey closed the door behind me shutting me in the bathroom. “I’m right here outside if you fall over just yell.”

**TL: West Side Hospital, June 17 2016, 1015 Hours - Athena**

Casey asked me to fetch Frank breakfast, I assumed from the cafeteria on the ground floor of the hospital. I didn’t know what Frank ate for breakfast nowadays, I very clearly recall that he ate eggs and bread one of the surprisingly few days I ‘ate’ breakfast with him.

The cafeteria was half empty, filled with fifty patients, visitors and staff, it was a bit late in the morning for breakfast. I gathered one of the trays and slide it down the rail until I reached the machine that would cook and dispense breakfast eggs once you filled the machine. I waited while the machine spilled yellow lumpy eggs onto a plate until it had run it’s cycle. Then I placed the plate in the center of the tray and moved on to a machine that warmed bread, a toaster. I struggle for a minute with the toaster, completely unsure of how to use it. Not eating meant no knowledge whatsoever of preparing food. A hand reached out and pulled down the lever, the bread disappeared into the machine.

I turned to look at whoever had helped me. It was another one like me, a boy of maybe twelve or thirteen years with the unmistakable eyes of an animatronic.

“ You’re Athena are you not?” he said immediately. “I was not sure how to use that the first time either.”

“How do you know of me?” I said suspiciously.

“I was built in your likeness, the old man said so, he said you had recruited him many years ago, but you were killed.”

“Yes, recently reprogrammed. Who are you?”

“I’m Apollo!” he sounded very proud.

Well, Casey and Frank had clearly continued name their robots after ancient deities.

“Are there many of us now?”

“Yes, fifty-one with you put back together.” Apollo was extremely cheerful, a wide smile permanently plastered over his face.

I thought it strange that this animatronic was so lively, most that I had seen in my life were robotic killing machines, and myself; I don’t know what I am.

“Did you know, I recruited five dreamers to Tomorrowland in the past nine months?” Apollo went on.

 

The toast popped up. I snatched it up and set it down on the plate, it burned on my fingertips, but I did not register the unpleasantness of the burn.

“What did you do to get stuck working around here?” Apollo inquired. “You should be out in the world, fulfilling your mission.-“ he lowered his voice to a whisper. “Did they decommission you?”

“No.” I answered. “They only completed me yesterday. I wasn’t told to go back to the mission. I was asked to come here. My- “ My speech and language interface was failing me. “Frank is in the hospital.”

“Oh, of course, Frank Walker. Is he still alive?”

“Were he dead, I would not be getting his breakfast.”

“You are not meant to serve your recruits Athena, what are you still doing here? We have a mission.”

Something stirred in the pit of my stomach, I felt too warm and too hostile. “Casey, the one who built me again has asked me to find breakfast for Frank, I am certain she will return me to my work when the time is right.” I replied calmly, trying to fight down what I thought to be anger towards this small machine.

I slide the tray further down the little rail to the station were many brightly color pitchers of liquid were lined up. The orange liquid tastes like the the orange citrus fruit, Nix had explained that too me once. I didn’t anticipate that Frank would drink coffee or tea, so I poured a small glass of the orange liquid until the cup was three-quarters full. I placed the cup on the tray.

“Bye!” Apollo said with excitement, waving after me with enthusiasm, I didn’t reply.

 

Making my way back to the lift I wondered if Apollo had been right, I was built for a mission that I was not working towards. Nix had sent me out to find new citizens for Tomorrowland within hours of my creation, but Casey kept me here with Frank for the first hours of my second creation. Frank is a recruit, he was my recruit and part of my job was to encourage him and help him when he needed it in Tomorrowland. I was not programmed to serve Frank, I was programmed to find dreamers. And yet, I wasn’t exactly opposed to what I’ve been doing for the past day. And should I have been opposed to things that got in the way of our mission?

The lift chimed when I reached Frank’s floor, I travelled down the hallway to my right two doors down to Frank’s room. I had to knock on the door using a foot to keep from dropping the tray, Casey opened the door almost immediately to let me in.

“Did you get eggs? Oh… good, you knew.” she smiled hesitantly. “Frank doesn’t like other things for breakfast I’ve found.”

Frank stepped out of the bathroom, redressed in the plain white pants and shirt identical to what he had worn yesterday. The blood stain on the sleeve of his shirt had gone, I assumed that his clothes had been replaced or cleaned.

“There’s breakfast here for you Frank.” Casey pointed out, very, _very_ pointedly.

Frank crossed to me and quickly removed the tray from my hands. “Sorry. Thanks.” he muttered, his cheeks red.

Blood always seemed to color Frank’s face when I tried to do things to help him back before he left. It made me wonder if he did not enjoy it, perhaps it made him feel embarrassed or uncomfortable.

“You’re welcome.” I said automatically, perhaps that is not what needed to be said in those circumstances. But I didn’t amend my words.

Frank sat at the little table beside the window and picked at the eggs and sipped the orange juice.

Casey watched him as though it were a particularly interesting site.

“Casey.” I began carefully. “Will I be allowed to return to the mission when Frank is healthy again?”

Casey turned to me looking surprised. “You can return to your job at any point Athena, I mean, I just wanted to see if you could help Frank, here. I’m not holding you here until he is able to leave.”

Frank watched us with interest, and possibly a little contempt. “You’re leaving?” he asked casually.

“At some point, I must. It is the mission I was created to fulfill.”

Suddenly he stood up and walked himself back into the bathroom.

Casey looked at me from the corner of her eye, a slightly reprimanding expression.

I hadn’t meant to make him angry again, I was unsure of what I did. Humans were never particularly direct I found.

 

Casey and I were in the middle of exchanging another somewhat threatening glance on Casey’s part when a team of doctors burst in. One doctor held a tablet that seemed to be displaying various graphs and charts, the other two carried clipboards and pens. I recognized the doctor with the tablet as the one who took Frank’s blood yesterday.

“Where is Mister Walker?” said the tablet-holding doctor.

“In the bathroom.” Casey replied, walking over towards the door. “Frank, come out, your doctors are here.” She pressed her ear to the door. “Yes, Frank, I know you don’t want to, but it’s a mandatory kind of thing.-“ She sighed. “- If you don’t come out, I’m letting them in.”

Frank opened the door and slipped out. “Can I go home now?”

“Not quite.” The doctor smiled. “We want to keep you here until tomorrow morning just to be sure, but can we have a seat here for a moment?”

Frank sat opposite the three doctors at the small table.

“Miss Newton, we’d ask you to leave at this time.” One of the doctors, judging by their identification badge, Doctor M. Karlon, told Casey.

No one mentioned my staying or leaving, I sat down beside Frank and was almost completely ignored. But Frank looked at me with something like angry curiosity.

“All right, Mister Walker, your tests and X-rays-“

“What X-rays?”

“The ones taken when you were unconscious.” Doctor Karlon amended patiently.

“The extraordinary thing is that they came back completely normal. Your blood chemistry is exceptionally good, there are no fractures or internal damage whatsoever. Compared to past medical records, everything appears to be normal. We cannot find any evidence that the Site worsened your condition in any way. Except the question of your age and memory.”

Frank nodded understandingly.

I found I was somewhat relieved to hear that Frank was in a physically stable condition.

“Mister Walker, your hormone levels seem to align with those you had when you were fifteen years old.”

**TL: West Side Hospital, June 17 2016, 1130 Hours - Frank Walker**

I was not surprised by the latest announcement, really I wasn’t! Perhaps I’d seen many a crazier thing in my day, but my brain was simply not alarmed by the prospect.

“There seems to be a great deal of memory loss, but you also seem to retain the knowledge of people and things that have happened more recently in your life, without being able to place them into context.”

_Ah, they’ve reached the confusing part._

“What do you mean?” Athena asked the question for me.

“It means that he only remembers his life experiences from childhood to fifteen years old. And yet maintains impressions of what his future-past self experienced before the accident. You recall many things pertaining to Miss Newton and have anxiety over Athena, you retain impressions of things that happen. Somewhere in there, you have the thought of your friend Athena dying. This seems to have caused you a certain amount of terror when you feel asleep last night.”

I can’t remember what I dreamed about, but I remember waking up to a doctor in my face and being terrified. In my mind Athena can’t have died, but it was also very clear that she had. What the doctors say, makes sense, that doesn’t mean I’m not angry at being left with mere impressions. Way to fail me when I need you memories…

“Mister Walker, our main concern looking forward is your mental health. Amnesia of any sort can put a lot of strain on your relationship with others and yourself.”

“Look, I’m really okay and none of you are even close to the top of the list for people I’d tell about my problems.”

“We aren’t asking you to trust us Mister Walker.” one of the doctors slide a paper across the table towards Athena.

Athena took the paper in confusion and scanned it quickly and placed it face down on the table. Hiding it.

“You don’t need to talk to anyone about it but it is important that you know that there are disorders such a severe anxiety and major depression caused by the frustration and stress of not being able to remember or think a certain way.”

“Got’cha.” I said very clearly, looking her in the eye, maybe if she thought I was taking her seriously, she’d let me go.

Athena shivered, or winced, _do robots do either of those things?_

One of the doctors handed me their clipboard. “This is the analysis work we did, we thought you might like a copy for future medical encounters and your research. Just make sure it stays safe, right?”

This doctor, he was a nice one, giving me his research and not asking stupid questions.

“Okay.”

The doctors began collecting their things and making as though they would leave now.

I found myself thinking, _that’s it?_

But no sooner had the doctor’s left, Casey reentered with a young boy and an older man, I knew they were Nate and Eddie, Casey’s brother and father, but of course, nothing that I’ve ever done involving them.

“Whoa _Casey_ , is that Mister Walker?” Nate gaped at me in awe.

“Yes, Nate, that’s Frank?” she looked at me for confirmation.

I nodded.

“Frank.” Casey said definitely. “He’s a little different, but less scary now, huh?”

Nate nodded contently. “And is that Athena?”

“Yes.”

Nate dashed over to Athena and grabbed her hair in fascination. “It’s real.”

Athena smiled at him warmly. “Very real. But this is much crazier.” she lifted the edge of her shirt and extracted a cylindrical storage compartment from inside her, it glowed blue when extracted.

Nate gasped and smiled delighted. “You’re like a human, but you’re a robot, this is awesome!”

Eddie Newton meanwhile approached me, smiling and holding out his hand. “Case’ says you might not remember me, but hi, I’m Eddie Newton, Casey’s dad. We worked together for a while at the Site before the accident.”

“Nice to see you again Mr. Newton, though I can’t claim to remember too much…” I excused somewhat regretfully. “Your daughter has been a real help this past… day?”

“Explains why she hasn’t been at home ever.” Eddie smiled. “I never quite know what she’s up to anymore. Always running around.”

I smiled politely, not really sure how to respond.

The Newtons stuck around for a few hours, I was allowed to travel down the the cafeteria for lunch, albeit in a wheelchair. Nate played a card game with Athena and I to pass the time, it irked me that Athena’s logical thought processes gave her the power to win every damn time. Casey and Mr. Newton looked over my file together having a hushed discussion about the Site, one which I could not even hope to make out. By 2100 hours, Eddie decided it was time to take his son home for dinner, he urged Casey to come along with them.

Athena leaned over and very quietly asked if I wanted her to stay or if I’d rather she leave so I could sleep.

I lay in bed, beside her, this time determined to stay on my side of the bed. I was wide awake thinking of all the things that would change when I was let out of here.


	7. Welcome Back Walker!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frank returns to the home of his past-future self in Tomorrowland. Athena confronts Frank about their 'admittedly disastrous' relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Frank and Athena: Will they? Won't they?
> 
> (Okay, guys, I promise this time, the main plot conflict gets going in the next chapter...)

**TL: Newton Residence, June 18 2016 1200 Hours - Casey Newton**

Frank was released from the hospital that morning after yet another medical exam, this time, a basic yearly physical. We took the monorail home and Frank’s reunion with the city was much more emotional than any other he’d had so far. He talked about all the old buildings, praised the new ones, gazed out the window as though his life depended on it. Athena was equally as engaged, I forget that she hasn’t seen the whole city in it’s glory in years either. I listened as Frank explained the swimming pools contained merely by surface tension of water to Nate, who always seemed to lose interest when I tried to explain them. Needless to say, he was fascinated in what Frank had to say, after all, Frank wasn’t the “nerdy” sister Nate complained endlessly about.

We got off the monorail near the Bridgeway Plaza, closest to our apartment which was on one of the streets fanning outwards from the Plaza. Our apartment was high up, giving us a fantastic view of the Bridgeway, the river and the tall buildings beyond. One of the best things about the building was the glass elevator on the outer glass wall of the building, allowing us to watch the world fly by as we ascended. The elevator was the place that Nate spent the most time in during our first week here. Frank seemed to thoroughly enjoy the experience as well, standing fearlessly at the very edge of the elevator, Nate chattered excitedly at him, but Frank didn’t seem to be overly attentive.

Our apartment was rather small, two small bedrooms (and one closet big enough to use as my bedroom, which I actually enjoyed.), an open but still rather small living space including a kitchen and sitting area and a small bathroom. Use of space was a miracle, all the hidden compartment in the wall that pulled out when you needed the storage, our house was chalk full of secret compartments. In my absence this morning, my father seemed to have constructed yet another circuit board on the coffee table, he explained to me last night that they were attempting to build a machine to fly into the danger site. I had tried to explain that there were extensive laboratory facilities for use all over the city and our coffee table shouldn’t always be one of them. Nate played with our experiments that we left around here, twice it ended up with him in the emergency room with burns.

“Case’ is that you?” Dad came out of his room, clearly somewhere in the middle of getting dressed.

“Uh, Frank and Athena are here.” I said belatedly. “They let Frank out of the hospital.”

“Make sure he doesn’t touch that.” Dad said, nodded at the circuit board which was being closely inspected by Frank. “Unless he wants to go back to the hospital.”

Frank pulled back a little, but continued his inspection.

Dad disappeared back into his room.

Frank looked up at me, looking quite lost. “So, this is Casey’s house…” he mused to himself, trying to piece together the world he was living in.

“And mine!” Nate chimed in, somewhat unnecessarily.

“Nate, can you give us a moment please?” I asked as kindly as I could. Nate turned to me, eyes wide.

“Why?”

“Please, Nate.”

Nate’s expression turned more angry, less curious and he stormed off to his room, complaining about how he was never allowed to know anything.

I sat on the couch with Frank.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Just confused.” Frank replied, he showed more patience here, however his exhaustion with the topic of his health was barely concealed.

“When you were- you know, older… You lived in the apartment just down the hallway, I mean, you’re younger and still the same age all at the same time, so it really is your decision. We’re not your superiors here.”

Frank furrowed his eyebrows, still thinking. He shut his eyes tightly and bent his head. “I just want to remember. I keep trying and trying but there’s nothing.”

“Don’t try.” Athena spoke up finally, she was standing nearest the door, watching us intently. “If there is something there at all Frank, it’s not going to come to you while you’re concentrating all you thoughts on remembering.”

Frank relaxed against the back of the couch, looking miserable.

“Do you want to go look where you used to live? It could help you.” I suggested, standing up. “We always kept a key here, since you are incapable of remembering them” I rolled my eyes, if Frank Walker showed up to my door past ten o’clock at night, there was a ninety-five percent chance he had locked himself out of his apartment again.

Frank nodded slowly. “Was I really incapable of remembering my keys?”

“Well, three out of five times, you’d just leave them at work… Not that you’d forget them all together when you left.” I explained as I pulled open the door, grabbing the key labelled ‘ _Frank, I was trying to sleep_.’

 

**TL: Walker-Newton Apartment Block, June 18 2016, 1330 Hours- Frank Walker**

I was vaguely amused when reading the label. “I never forget things, I mean, I didn’t, when I was like this before.”

"You forgot when it was my birthday.” Athena corrected not angrily, just factually.

“Robots don’t have birthdays.” I said flatly.

Casey remained silent but looked a little taken aback.

“David Nix said that it was the third of May in 1964.” Athena recited.

“David Nix also rejected my jetpack, made evil immortality serum, destroyed Tomorrowland _and_  killed you.” I shot back.

She was just so consistently wrong about things, probably a side effect of having no real thought processes, just little commands programmed in her head, controlling her. Lack of independent thoughts or feeling from what Nix had programmed her for, the limited knowledge he’d given her and the unlimited space to store memories. There was no way she was programmed to know how these human things worked. Her focus narrow, only on the mission that she was made to do, she didn’t have the abilities to care about other things.

"The serum that stopped growth hormones enabling Nix to stay physically the same? That was not evil!" Athena protested. "They sell it in pharmacies now!" 

“Ladies and gentlemen, please everyone calm yourselves, we are entering Frank Walker’s home.” Casey announced, turning the key in the lock on an unfamiliar door.

The apartment was smaller than the Newtons’, two rooms total, bathroom and a room for everything else. There was a little kitchen in one corner, a bed near the window. Shelves laden with neatly ordered books and papers lining two of the walls. Most of the rest of the space was consumed by a dining table which clearly was rarely used for eating due to the amount of technological parts and papers with designs and notes strewn around on it. I didn’t recognize the place at all, I thought I might, I was able to recognize Casey, Nate and Mister Newton.

I picked up a paper from off the table, it seemed to be something for building animatronics, the title read ‘ATHENA’ and it had belonged to David Nix in 1955 according to the header. Why did past-future me have this? _Working to make more recruiters, right._

“Speaking of Athena’s birthday…” Casey grinned, snatching the paper out of my hand. “You still have this? This isn’t much other then a rudimentary version of the programming we’d been using, this would be like the worst robot ever. No offense Athena, this isn’t actually what was used.”

“I’ll tell you when I remember what I was doing with any of this.” I said angrily.

Casey looked embarrassed at her slip up.

The stuff lying on the table seemed to be mostly designs and ideas for animatronics, it amazed me that I’d actually gotten into this stuff. I wanted to be left alone.

“Can you please go?” I asked softly. “I’d like to be left alone for a while.”

Casey nodded looking sympathetic. “Yeah, yeah, of course. If you leave the building, drop us a note, okay?”

I nodded my understanding.

Casey embraced me very quickly before motioning Athena to come with her.

“Do you want me to leave as well Frank?” Athena asked quietly.

“Yes! What does alone mean to you?” I snapped.

“Athena, come on.” Casey urged. “We should go to the lab anyways.”

Athena darted over to Casey and shut the door behind them.

No sooner had they gone, I crossed to my bed and collapsed.

 

**TL: Bridgeway Plaza, June 18 2016 2100 Hours - Athena**

I wish. I don’t know how, but I wish, I wish I knew why Frank hated me and all others like me with such a passion. Some of it about our lack of being able to feel, I knew and I worried that he would be adversely effected by learning the truth about me. I wish I hadn’t lied about everything in the first place. I wish I could return to the time when he was young, hopeful and happy to be in Tomorrowland. I wish we could go back to the times when we would run around this very plaza, Frank laughing, myself, smiling at the sound. I do not understand Frank Walker anymore, I understand sadness and disappointment and love, but I do not understand him. Last night and the night before last I lay in his room, unable to sleep while he did, keeping him company when he was scared. In the light of day however, he hurled somewhat passive insults at me. I’ve never felt that being a machine was a terrible thing, but Frank Walker does, I always hoped or thought that when I told him, he would accept it. He was by far creative enough to do so.

 

Footsteps echoed across the plaza, the sky was dark now, but I could see the figure walking, their trajectory perpendicular to mine as I began to move. I avoided looking to closely at them, not wanting to speak to anyone else out at this hour.

“Athena?” the person called, I recognized the voice immediately, Frank Walker.

I spun around in surprise. “What are you doing out of your house?” I asked.

Simultaneously he asked. “What are you doing here?”

We stared at each other for a moment, stalemated as to who would answer whose question.

“I couldn’t sleep.” Frank blurted out. “I’m taking a walk.”

“You could get lost.” I pointed out. “I might. Waiting for something?” he asked, still a little confused as to way I was in the Plaza.

“Not particularly.”

“Don’t you have a home or some place recruiters go at night? Base of Operations?” Frank was civil but not familiar in the way he used to converse. It felt a bit like an insult does.

“I don’t know. Under Nix I lived in the same building as you did, you know. With the lady who watched after all the young recruits. Casey has failed to mention anything of that sort.”

Frank sat down on the wall beside the river and looked up, he didn’t say anything, I was unsure if that meant the conversation was over. I sat down beside him cautiously, just out of his arms’ reach.

“Frank.”

He turned his head towards me, a question in his eyes.

“Why are you angry with me, Frank?” I asked, lowering my voice substantially.

 

Across the square a young couple returning from dinner chattered and laughed.

Frank stared at me shocked. “You lied to me. And you’re animatronic.”

“Frank, I’m sorry. Nix told me I had to, I assumed he had an intent. I’ve told you before that I thought it wrong to keep it from you. And I cannot stop being animatronic.”

“You always said I was a genius, you always praised my work and me so highly. You let me hope that I could be something one day, make great things. It didn’t feel so much like hope once I realized it’s prerecorded words and thoughts, that I wasn’t really making you feel anything.” Frank stared at his hands clenched painfully in his lap while he ground out the words.

There are so many things I should have said before he left I realize. When I realize things, he doesn’t know that I understand and never told him. “Of course I enjoyed your work, it was fascinating and wonderful, I have lived half a century since you left Tomorrowland and your creations are still ones that impress me most.”

“You can talk about the merits of my work all day long and still you don’t see that it doesn’t help at all.” Frank threw back angrily. “It upsets me that you don’t think of me as a friend or… something, but as a mission.”

 _Oh. A mission. I think now I understand him._ I’d always believed he was more angry about the lies, he was injured. Emotionally injured? A moment’s thoughts later I came up with the word _hurt._ Adjective. Meaning; a feeling of mental pain or distress.

“I did think you were my friend.” Something told me that I probably should not tell him what I told Casey at the hospital. Not when he was angry. “You were my best recruit in your four years here, I didn’t care much for the others, they were too quiet. There are many things that I do not know how I can do, you say I cannot understand or experience sadness, or disappointment or love, but I think I can Frank.”

Now I really had Frank’s attention, he was staring at me incredulously.

“I thought there was a mistake in my interpersonal interfaces for a long time, Casey says there isn’t one, that my programming is as complex as to allow for emotion.”

“I’m lost, what are you saying here exactly?” Frank waved his hand around his face in a gesture of confusion.

 _I don’t know where I was going with that_. I stopped.

“Athena?” Frank asked again. “You’ve gone all blank, Jesus, did you break? Athena!”

I collected my thoughts. “Apologies, but do try not to shake me around next time. I was going to say, you don’t have to distrust me because you think I do not care enough about you. I’ve found that I can care and I care for you.”

“I was right…” Frank muttered to himself.

I don’t know what he was right about, he wouldn’t tell me.

Across the square, there was a splash, the young man I’d noted earlier had fallen into the fountain in the middle of the square, his partner looked on, laughing hysterically. It distracted me momentarily and a small laugh escaped my lips.

“Did you just laugh?” Frank said incredulously. “You just laughed, damn it Athena. After I tried for so long?”

“I told you, and that is the former you, so I suppose you don’t know…” I amended quickly. “You aren’t very funny.” I said it lightly, as though I were joking too.

 

I remembered Frank before I’d died, close to tears and laughing through them.

 

Frank groaned and cradled his face in his hands. “Guess I never thought of that one.”

I felt myself smiling without thinking to. “Frank, are you going to be angry with me tomorrow?”

Frank looked over at me. “Want to go back to being friends like the old days?”

“Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Frank and Athena: Not today!!!!


	8. All House Assault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frank returns to his work at the Site. An encounter at the Recruiter Base puts Athena in serious danger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I promised it would get more interesting... here we go

**TL: Danger Site, June 19 2016 1000 Hours- Frank Walker**

I was exhausted. But I felt better than I had for a very long time - and I really mean that, even before everything went to hell, I didn’t feel this good when I remember leaving Tomorrowland. Maybe I should’ve made better decisions and not sat in the Bridgeway Plaza, soaking wet after jumping into a fountain, for five hours, with Athena. But I did, and I was sorry for it when Mister Newton knocked on my door at 8 o’clock asking me if I wanted to help with the continued investigation of the Site. Of course I’d wanted very much to go, to find out what the hell happened. So, I got up, put on the still slightly damp clothes they’d given me when I left the hospital, finding that the past-future me didn’t have clothes that would fit me. And I headed out the door.

Casey, Athena, Mister Newton and I made our way via the monorail towards the Site, I believe Nate went to school as many of the young members of families in Tomorrowland did. On the way, Casey and Mister Newton filled me in on the physics of the Site. They told me that it was usually not something you could see very well, but for the occasional recorded “shimmering air” and the only time it was something else, it was the cloud that had pulled me in. It had a slight pull, to the extent that anyone going under it would need to be tied down, but it was still possible, until the one day that it had exuded incredible amounts of force and taken me in. They told me that I was the only thing that had ever been returned after being pulled in and that several pieces of equipment and such had been taken and came back. They told me their hypothesis that it was created by the tachyons released when the Oracle I made was destroyed (by us, but mostly Athena, I don’t want to think about it) last year.

We got off a block away from the site, apparently all monorails had been rerouted around the Site to keep them from getting pulled in, so we walked. It was a fairly nice day, a bit cool for June but the sun was out and glancing off the many reflective buildings, dazzlingly bright. Little white clouds dotted the sky at some places, not dark enough to threaten rain, but present.

Athena walked next to me quietly, but I found silence was far more bearable when I wasn’t trying to find reasons to hate her and blame her for things.

Casey who walked a little ahead with her father turned her head to look at us, faced forward again and then took a double take. “What’s happening? Why are you two getting along?”

“There was a thing…” I said vaguely. “Last night…”

“A thing? Last night?” Casey sounded concerned and possible scared. “Athena I swear to God…”

“A conversation, Jesus Christ Casey, where is your mind?”

Casey’s face flushed. “Never mind. It’s not important. So are you two like past the ‘This is so awkward, I kind of hate you, I kind of died for you and I’m freaking out’ stage or what?”

“Come again?” Athena asked.

“You know… the Frank-Athena battle of ideas, human versus robot, thinking versus feeling…” Casey was getting too into this description.

“Yes Casey! Everything is fine.”

“Okay…” Casey darted back and whisper something to Athena, something that I couldn’t hope to make out.

“No! Of course not.” Athena protested, walking a little faster to get away from Casey.

“Sorry… sorry…” Casey mumbled.

I threw her a questioning look, she just winked.

“Casey, stop wasting time.” Mister Newton called. “We have work to do here.”

 

We had arrived at the Site. Which for all means and purposes looked like any old construction site, high temporary barriers blocking it off from the public, shrouded in warning orange. Mister Newton stepped around the barriers easily and we followed him inside, around the edge of the circle, tables and machines had been set up, the middle of the area left completely bare. The paved surface of the ground was beginning to crack under the pull from the sky. Many of the scientists turned to look as we came in, ogling at me, the product of this thing they were investigating.

“It’s Frank Walker!” the hiss seemed to travel through the small crowd.

“Hey, I’m back.” I said awkwardly, looking down at my shoes.

Mister Newton put a hand on my shoulder. “Mister Newton is here to help us in our investigation, as you all know he is extremely mentally capable of understanding everything despite being physically different. In addition, he does not remember what happened to him the other day and pestering him with endless questions is not going to help him remember and will make no one happy. So, don’t do it, and uh- carry on.”

“Thanks, Mister Newton.”

“Frank, buddy, that sounds weird, just call me Eddie, okay?”

“Okay.”

Eddie turned around and walked over to one of the tables, striking up a conversation with a lady in wearing protective glasses and gear.

 

“Frank.” Athena tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention. “As it turns out there is a ‘Base of Operations’ for the recruiters, it’s that building right there-“ she pointed to one not to far away from the site. “Casey thinks I ought to ‘check in’.”

“Okay… Don’t leave without saying goodbye, though, right?” I asked.

Athena smiled at that. “I will remember that.”

Eddie was beckoning me over to look at something on the table, it appeared to be a graph. I got distracted from Athena telling me that she’d see me later, and may have said something like “Yeah…”. Before running off to join Eddie in his investigations.

Much of the next few hours were spent catching up on the things I’d forgotten and looking over past evidence. The entire site seemed to be very connected to the geologic activity directly below it, a particularly fascinating notion, and one no one seemed to be able to explain yet.

“What about causes underground?” I mentioned to Casey, interrupting her work looking over graphs on seismic activity. “I’m pretty sure this place doesn’t have natural seismic activity.” I pointed out.

The physicist standing at Casey’s shoulder shrugged. “He has a point, Newton.”

“I know he has a point!” Casey snapped, then paused to think for an extended moment. “Heat signatures! That’s it! We’ve only tried our machines scanning upwards, what if we scanned the ground under the site? Frank! You’re a genius! Okay! So…”

 

**TL: AA-Recruiter Program Building, June 19 2016 1030 Hours - Athena**

The doors to the tall, metallic building swung open when I got within ten feet of them and swung shut the moment I crossed the threshold. I was standing in an austere entrance hall, no time or resources had been wasted adding decorations or accents to the room. One wall was line with desks that you might see at an airport, each attended by an animatronic staff member, they looked nearly in unison as I entered. On the far side of the hall there was a human security guard who was building a small contraption on his desk while he waited. I approached him quickly and came to a stop three centimeters before touching the desk.

“Hey.” he said brightly. “What’s up?”

“I would like to get in there.” I said flatly. “My name is Athena, I am-“

“Oh, I know who you are, everyone knows who you are around here. You’re a legend around here. The first recruiter, the one who saved Tomorrowland, pretty awesome stuff.”

I smiled at him politely. “So, I can go in?”

“Yes! I just need to scan the chip in your wrist, keep track of who is here, who is away.”

I extended my right hand towards him and he waved a small, black, rectangular scanner over it easily. It made a quiet beeping noise and the door behind the guard opened.

“Thanks! Enjoy your stay Athena!”

I hurried through the door behind the guard, beyond, there was a guide to where things where in the base. The first five floors seemed to be dedicated to creation of new animatronics, the first floor for example had extensive programming facilities. The second floor’s facilities focused on creating the nanotechnology that everywhere in our bodies. The sixth, seventh and eighth storeys was for complex repairs that were unable to be handled by the abundant repair pods. The tenth and eleventh were areas for recruiters to be when they were not on a mission and not being repaired. And the twelfth through fourteenth were for research, and mission control. There was a fifteenth, but it merely said ‘Restricted Access’.

I took an elevator to the fourteenth floor.

The entire fourteenth floor was one room, filled with wide screens lining the walls, news reports from Earth played over them. In the center of the room, a large circular console of control screens took up the space. It was an impressive site but it was entirely empty. Apparently everyone was away right now, if I found it a bit strange that this room was empty when there were fifty recruiters running around somewhere, I pushed the thought aside. I crossed to the console and ran my fingers along the screen, scrolling through files upon files that were stored on potential recruits. The program hadn’t worked like this when it was just me looking for new citizens, Frank and Casey had done a number on the program. It was my understanding that the screens were here to give the recruiters ideas of who to choose, that it gave them an easier way to learn about the opportunities out there. Obviously not everyone on here was chosen, not everyone was right.

 

Something hit the ceiling above me, causing an extremely loud noise, a jolt of surprise ran through me, I tilted my head back to see the ceiling and inspect for damage. I didn’t see any reason for concern.

Then there was screaming.

I knew it was an animatronic who was screaming, the voice changed in a way a human’s would not, bouncing back and forth between the voice they’d been given and the voice of a machine. If the animatronic upstairs was saying words at all, I could not make them out, instead there was simply screaming.

The ‘Restricted Access’ floor; it must have meant the dissembling area, destroying those animatronics who had serious problems, glitches or behavioral issues that made them incapable of work. Something Nix would’ve done to me had I not been able to escape, but I never expected that it would cause the machine pain.

I dashed towards the elevator as something hit the floor upstairs, darting inside I pressed the button for the next floor, it kept asking me for a password, I didn’t know a password. How else would I get upstairs? Upstairs, stairs! There had to be a stairwell somewhere here, I stepped out of the lift and scanned the room for a sign indicating stairs. There was one, far on the other side of the room, a door. I darted to it and opened it. I couldn’t go up, the stairs were blocked by another door that required a password. _Doors can be broken, broken elevators do nothing._ I am not supposed to be destructive to certain buildings, my programming was telling me not to harm this building, that it was a good place. I do not know how my programming knew this, I had never been here before.

But I fought it down, _did Casey give me back one of those laser-beam guns?_ Yes, it was stored in the left torso panel. I pulled my shirt up, flipped open the panel and retrieved the device. I aimed for the lock on the door and blasted it with the highest intensity beam the device could manage. It took all my concentration and more to defy the programming struggling to repossess my wires. I imagine it hurt quite a lot at the time, my emergent will to do things I am not programmed for trying to battle down everything that I was programmed to be.

The door swung open and a shrill alarm began to blare. I did not have the time to worry about the alarm, I pushed the door open until I could get through and darted up the stairs. My concentration was taking a moment to recalibrate and for that terrifying moment, I had no control over what I was doing, simply running upwards. I flew up the last flight of stairs and into a wide, pristine, white room.

Two tall windows on each wall, there was plenty of natural light in the room. The room was devoid of furniture, a counter with tools lined one wall, traveling nearly the whole length of the wall and a table in the middle. The table in the middle drew my focus; strapped to the table was an animatronic, it took me only a moment to realize it was the same machine I’d seen at the hospital, the boy called Apollo. Over him to a large figure in what used to be a white lab jacket, but it was currently smattered with black, machine oil. What appears to be the remains of at least four other animatronics lay on the ground.

This cannot be right.

The figure standing over Apollo turned slowly to look at me, unsurprised and calm. “Come to join in Athena?” he asked calmly.

I said nothing, simply stared trying to piece together what was happening. _Why was he taking so many apart? Were they all so problematic?_

“Does this scare you?” the man repeated. “You’re the one of them who can feel things, you’ve developed yourself so far in your lifetime… Do we really want such an independent thing running around, bringing in half-competent, so-called dreamers?”

This man was not a friend, he was not a friend of the Plus Ultra, he was not a friend of the program. I needed to find Casey; the creator of the program, something was very very wrong. Casey Newton would not condone this. Alarms were still pinging and Apollo was still making agonized noises on the table. I was frozen there, if I turned and left, would the tall man let me? I took a step back towards the stairs, the tall man did nothing. I took it as a sign that I could leave, I turned to flee.

“I don’t think so.” the man roared, I heard the noise of a gun being loaded, guns cannot hurt me badly, I continued down the steps.

_Bang!_

The sensors in my ears were nearly overwhelmed by the force of the sound, something struck my left shoulder blade, sending electric shocks down my torso. In the moment that I could not control my body as a result of the shocks, I collapsed. I tumbled down the remainder of the steps, my sensors picked up on the pain of impact, but I cannot be bruised and I will not bleed. The pain is only temporary while the stress on my sensors lasts. Inky black oil was leaking from my shoulder joint, the bullet must be lodged there still, my sensors in the area had shut down.

A mass landed on top of me, pressing me into the concrete the landing was made of. It took me a fraction of a second to recognize the mass as the tall man from the fifteenth floor. Placing my palms against the floor, I pushed upwards, throwing the man off me, my left arm slipped out of my control, dislocated due to the injury to my shoulder blade. I relied on my right arm to get myself into a standing position.

The man had smashed his forehead against the bannister somehow, it was concave at the point of impact. Whatever he was, it wasn’t human.

Blessedly, I’d managed to keep a hold on my ray-gun, I blasted him in the chest with it, it didn’t seem to phase him. He lunged at me, grabbing my outstretched handed, seconds before I could react. He jerked my arm backwards over my head, launching himself with it. He landed on one knee behind me, the strong pull on my arm pulled me down, I landed hard before him on my back. Pain spiked through my skull, if I were human, I would undoubtedly have lost my breathe, I recovered quickly. Arching my back, I used my legs to jump into a standing position.

_I need a time._

A swift hard kick to the side of the man’s head sent him tumbling down the next flight of stairs, rather loudly, it bought me a few seconds. I pulled my shirt up and again opened the left panel where weapons were stored. I pulled out two small magnetic devices that would connect through a powerful electrical bolt when pointed at each other. It was the only other thing I’d been given. _I can make do_. If I could just grab his head…

Launching over the bannister to where the man was just beginning to stand up, I landed behind him. I wrapped my good arm around his neck, forcing myself upwards kneeing him in the chest- a sharp pull in my left leg. He collapsed to the ground again but this time I was on top of him. I placed my right elbow under his throat, holding him down while I positioned the magnets in my hands and forced my left hand to move to where it could rest against his temple.

“Who are you?” I demanded digging my elbow in harder.

“We won’t let you destroy what Tomorrowland with your false optimism and misguided recruits. We’re weeding out the bad ones as we speak.”

_Was he glitching? Who made him?_

“Who created you?” “I don’t know. Plus Ultra.”

I’ve heard Frank say _“What the hell?”_ , I thought it was a rather appropriate sentiment at the time.

This thing was clearly malfunctioning, I brought my right hand down on the other side of the man’s face, aligning the electromagnetic currents. There was a sharp sizzling noise and the man went slack; the top of his head disconnected, leaving nothing but exposed wires connecting the two halves. Gone.

I climbed off him carefully, I was still leaking oil and the pain in my arm from dislocating my shoulder was becoming unbearable. The stark contrast of numb and sharp pain was confusing and hard to focus through.

I dashed back up the stairs, into the pure white room and over to the table. Apollo had gone quiet, his sensors must have shut down, but he was not yet destroyed.

“Athena.” His former voice was gone seemingly gone, replaced by an unnatural sort of sound.

His lips did not move when he spoke, they simply played over the speaker exposed when his throat was cut open. No repair pod could fix this, with proper resources and skill, he might be salvaged. I had neither the resources or the skill, time was running short. If not properly handled, a sufficiently damaged animatronic is programmed to self-destruct for the protection of their programs and technology, as well as the destruction of whoever harmed them.

I had to disable the self-destruct, the damage would be extreme if I were unable to. The self-destruct button for premature self destruction is located in the shoulder control panel, the skin on Apollo’s shoulder was gone, appearing burnt or torn off with the panel door. There were wires running all over from where the panel was, they would control the body. Without the clear labels the panel provided, I was unsure of which wire controlled which function.

“Self-destruct.” Apollo’s speaker recited.

“Yes! Where is it?”

“I do not know. Activate -“

“Wait! I can still help to fix-“

“-Self-destruct.” Apollo’s speaker finished. “Run Attttthena” his words became less defined.

A robot’s self-destruct is a nuclear explosion, perhaps on a smaller scale then any atomic bomb, but nonetheless nuclear. And this time, there was no Oracle to soften the blow.

“You have to shut it down!” I raised my voice, Apollo’s internal wiring was humming loudly.

“Can- not” Apollo replied, his words disjointed. “Ru-u-un”

_I could have stopped that. And now lots of people are going to die. Guilt; noun: a feeling of having done wrong or failed in an obligation._

Apollo began to glow brightly, I dashed towards a tall glass window, facing into the side street behind the building. Holding my arm defensively before my face, I squeezed my eyelids shut, crashing through the glass just as the flash before the explosion went off. Followed by the deafening noise, the air was flying past me, grazing my sensors as I fell.

Just before I shut down, I saw an orange light behind my eyelids and felt pain exploding through my skull.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #Athenaisafreakingbadass returns


	9. You've Piqued My Pin-Trist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frank tries desperately to find Athena after the events at the Recruiter Headquarters. Casey searches for causes and information pertaining to the incident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry there was no update yesterday, I was working really hard on it and then my computer decided to go crazy and I had to fix it and UGH.

**TL: Danger Site, June 19 2016 1100 Hours- Frank Walker**

The noise of the explosion was what drew our attention, people turned to the noise, screaming in terror when they saw the building crumble.

_Athena._

Athena had been in that building. Before logical thought caught up with my instincts, I was already running, out of the site, down the street. I thought I heard Casey calling out for me but it wasn’t important. _I had to find Athena._

I pounded down the street, brushing past panicking citizens in my hurry, ignoring their irritable protests. My feet hitting the pavement jarringly, I recognized fatigue but ignored it. My lungs burned and my heart raced, I was breathing in sharp, quick gasps. The building turned to rubble and dust whilst I was running, giving way in several parts, each letting off dreadfully loud noises.

I arrived on the scene, first responders; paramedics and firemen already flooded the scene, keeping people out. I slipped by in the panic, no one seemed to pay me any attention and I was able to hide in the clouds of dust. “Athena?” I called out, climbing over a pile of rubble.

There was so much god damn rubble. Athena could be anywhere. I realized crushingly. Anywhere under the stones, under the sheets of scalding metal, warmed by the blast.

Somewhere I heard Casey screaming at the paramedics to let her through, telling them that I had slipped by and that she had to find me. They assured her that there was no way I could be in here.

“Athena?” I yelled again. I tripped over something in my inattention to my path, it was a disembodied hand, judging by the wires, it had belonged to an animatronic. I felt sick. Even if Athena had made it out, another one of the things I had helped to create, destroyed.

I walked awhile longer, circling the buildings foundation until I reached the further border of the explosion site. There was a small plaza, the police had roped off the plaza at it’s furthest out points, essentially turning the area into an emergency site. I scanned the area, looking for something, anything that might lead me to finding Athena.

The sick feeling was growing in my stomach, if she were alive, she’d have found a way out by now. _God, why hadn’t I taken a few extra seconds to say good-bye when she left the Site… She said we’d see each other later. What if we didn’t?_ It was so unfair that she would be given back to us and taken away in so few days. I recognized the feeling, but from where, I don’t know.

 

“Hey! Kid!” A paramedic was running towards me across the plaza. “What do you think you are doing?”

I turned to run, I wasn’t about to leave without finding her. My foot caught on the edge of a lose piece of metal, the edge was sharp lacerating my ankle, I lost my balance and collapsed.

The paramedic caught up to me, grabbing my arm. “Were you in the building? What’s your name kid?”

“Frank Walker. I need to find someone, she was in the building…”

The paramedic looked at me mournfully. “That was a nuclear explosion Frank, your friend probably didn’t make it out. Come on, let us get a look at that ankle.”

“No! She can’t be dead, she would’ve found a way, leave me the hell alone.”

Something caught my eye, a form laying a top the rubble, a flicker of hope grew back inside my chest. I jumped up, pulling free of the paramedic, my bleeding ankle stung a bit but it didn’t matter. I took of running, leaping over large stones, running along slippery metal sheets. Making out details through the dust became easier and easier as I drew closer. My heart rate, which had slowed during my search spiked again in anticipation.I ignored the protests of the paramedics.

_Small. Brown hair. Denim jacket._

I drew closer still.

_Red tennis shoes. Denim pants. A black stain (not a shadow) on the left shoulder._

“Athena!”

No response.

I dashed to the figure’s side, falling to my knees against sharp rubble, I grabbed their shoulder and pulled them over. I had known it was Athena before, but relief flooded me in the moment that I saw her face, a warm feeling melted the tension in my chest somewhat. Something was still very very wrong here, but she was still here. Knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was her, and she didn’t look too bad, gave me hope that whatever was wrong, it would be easy enough to fix.

Her shoulder was leaking machine oil and was angled all wrong. Her legs were clearly damaged on impact, broken if I had to guess. There was a large shard of glass wedged in her ribcage and she didn’t seem to be conscious. On a more worrisome note, robots can’t and won’t pass out.

Paramedics were shouting a little while away, I ignored them.

I fumbled with the panel on her right shoulder, pulling aside three layers of clothing aside at the neck to flip open the door. Inside I was able to readjust her power switch before closing the door and readjusting her clothes. There was a clicking sound, and then a whir, her eyes snapped open and she groaned.

Functioning. Good.

“Frank!” She said, seemingly surprised, trying to sit up. I didn’t realize how badly my hands were shaking until I extended them towards her as she struggled to sit up. I tried to steady them, but it wasn’t happening.

She started to fall back, realizing that there were many things wrong with her physically, I caught her to stop her from laying in the pile of glass beneath her.

“I need to go to a repair pod, the damage isn’t too bad. There used to be one quite close by, there must be a mechanical lab somewhere here…” She explained. I listened to her, watched her, she was as alert as ever, making plans, talking through it. Reassuring me more than anything that everything was going to be all right, she just needed me to cooperate a little.

 “Don’t look at me like that.” she coughed out. “It makes me think of-“

“FRANK WALKER!” Casey had arrived at last. “Wait, thank God, you found her and she is okay?”

“Repair pod.” I said distractedly. “Where’s a repair pod? She needs one.”

“You don’t say…” Casey replied. “What happened anyways? The firemen are saying it was a nuclear explosion.” She knelt beside me, gasping for air.

Athena continued to lean backwards until it was taking most of my strength to hold her off the glass shards, at least her spinal chord seemed to be intact.

Casey shot me a significant look. ‘ _What’s she doing?’_ she mouthed at me.

“It relieves the stress on my sensors if I straighten my back, if you two insist on wasting time, I’d rather reduce my levels of pain.”

I quickly thought through how best to help Athena, this medical doctors, humans would do nothing for her. Technicians, Casey, machines to rebuild her and me, granted I could remember; they could save her. But we had to get her out of here without the interference of the paramedics and law enforcement.

“Casey, go talk to them, see if they’ll let us go, if they know the closest place to find help. I’ll figure out how to move her. ”

Casey nodded and darted off without further comment.

 

**TL: Edison Hall of Mechanical Invention June 19 2016, 1145 Hours - Casey Newton**

I shoved open the doors of the nearby Edison Hall of Mechanical Invention, a building with general mechanical labs used for inventing and testing. It was one of the four largest mechanical labs here, however one that I had never visited; the one named for Nikola Tesla had been more a convenient commute. The space I owned there was were many of the animatronic recruiters were originally built, before the base existed, I guess it doesn’t exist anymore. How many of our creations had been destroyed in the explosion? With twenty of them currently away on Earth, many of the other thirty could plausibly have been destroyed.

Frank followed me through the doors, holding Athena as gently as possible around the shoulder and the crook of her knee, as far as I could tell; two regions of her body that would not enjoy that kind of pressure at the moment. Her head was wedged firmly between Frank’s shoulder and head, her eyes looking blankly past his throat. A sheen of sweat covered Frank’s brow, his eyes were dark, terrified and confused.

“Hey!” I shouted at the people making their way towards the elevator. “Do you have a repair pod?”

“Just down the hall.” one of the people hurried over, he wore a white lab coat, contrasting strongly with his dark skin and hair and a concerned expression. “Follow me.”

I nodded, motioning somewhat unnecessarily for Frank to follow me.

We hurried down a brightly lit hallway, where in an alcove we found the familiar repair pod. The glass ovoid object emblazoned with a logo spelling ‘Alleviate’ glowed brightly as our guide pressed the button to activate it. The pod split in half, the top part opening to reveal a metal contraption where the body would be placed and subsequently strapped in. The machine was suited to repairs on both human and artificial bodies, given you changed the settings dependent on the patient. It was more efficient on robots really and could only be used to stabilize the more complex bodies of humans.

Frank set Athena inside the pod, settling her head against the slightly raised area intended for heads and watched as the restraints snaked out, tying down her ankles, wrists, waist and forehead.

“Don’t look so upset Frank.” I heard Athena say as I fiddled with the settings. “It isn’t like last time which you obviously remember subconsciously. Try to… relax.”

Frank swallowed with some difficulty. “Right.” He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

I clamped a hand over my mouth, looking at our guide out of the corner of my eye, he looked unfazed.

Frank straightened and closed the lid of the machine. “We need to find out what happened. Casey, what are you doing?”

“Nothing.” I withdrew my hand from my mouth. “Yawning.”

The machine began to whir, the glass clouded over, shielding Athena from our view, the pod glowed faintly red near where it would open. Frank turned back to me.

“Where can we access that sort of information? What happened, what led up to it?”

“I was kind of hoping we could find something in the records we keep as the heads of the recruiter program. Do you think that won’t work?”

“We kept records, that is helpful. Were they not destroyed with the building?”

“They’re in cyberspace or what have you, accessible from most computers or such interfaces.” I explained, remembering an explosive argument with the older Frank about how to keep the program safe from those wanting to use animatronics for other things. However, I had wanted the information in multiple places for the exact reason that if the wrong person got control of one file, we could more easily fix the problem. I was glad I’d won that argument.

“What happened?” Our guide asked, he’d been standing to watch the action without commenting.

“The recruiter headquarters was destroyed, the girl was in there, and we don’t know what caused it yet.”

 

The machine beeped, glowing green rather than red now as it lifted it’s lid, exposing a repaired Athena. The restraints around her head, wrists, waist and ankles slid back, Athena clambered out of the pod quickly, leaning on the edge of the pod until her balance recalibrated.

Frank began to ask her how she was feeling, Athena ignored him, plunging into an explanation of what had happened.

She asked me about the tall man, who I had never heard of in my life, my heart rate sped up. I thanked and waved goodbye to the inventor who had helped us as we hurried out of the building.

“This tall man, he was animatronic.” Athena explained. “It was not too hard to destroy him, but he was destroying us. He was on the fifteenth floor, the disassembly area, he was taking apart Apollo.” She recited it flatly, something she did when she had difficulty with talking about certain things, I noticed. “He was in a lot of pain, I didn’t know that it was meant to hurt so badly when you are taken apart. He was very damaged, his programming was threatened enough that he activated his self destruct. I tried to repair him, but he wouldn’t listen to me. I had to jump out of the window to avoid serious damage.”

 

We hurried down the street, towards the nearby monorail stop.

“Where are we going?” Frank asked.

“The Tesla Hall of Invention, nearer to home. We have lab space and internet there.”

Athena 2.0 was built in the basement of the T.H.I, right under Frank’s nose, I was very proud of that secret once. On the way into the lab, we saw Soraya and Salim walking out of the elevator. They waved and called out to Athena and I excitedly, I shot them an apologetic look as we bustled past.

“I know them…” Frank said vaguely.

“It’s Soraya and Salim, two scientists with a lab downstairs. They helped me rebuild Athena.”

We piled into the elevator, Frank punched in several buttons, I assumed muscle memory because he did everything correctly without my so much as telling him.

No one spoke as the elevator shot upwards to the sixteenth floor where we had two rooms, a proper laboratory and a fortified room for testing machinery.

I unlocked the door to the lab and pushed the door open. The counters of the lab were still littered with the remnants of Frank’s work, a device he was trying to improve upon; one that would use magnetic energy to levitate very large objects. The device had been a failure for many people in the past, but if anyone could make it work, it was Frank Walker. I was used to the messy lab, I spent most of my days in here, helping Frank, working on my own projects, testing, researching. It was by far my favorite place here.

One of the walls was taken up with a large touch-manipulated hologram screen which was used for designing and research for the most part. Here was where we could get the information needed on the recent explosion and events at the Recruiter Base. I switched on the screen and located the folder on the recruitment program, the top file was the status report on our recruiters, I tapped it and it popped into focus. A list of fifty names popped up, and glaring in red next to an alarming number of the names, was the word _“Dissembled._ ” Equally as many were listed as _‘Inactive_ ’. My heart stopped dead.

“What the f-“ Frank was interrupted by the door banging open.

Dad and Nate burst in. “Oh, Case’ thank God you’re okay.”

The two of them ran over and embraced me, I was too shocked, too numb to appreciate the gesture.

“What the hell were you thinking? Running into a battle zone like that? I swear to God Case’”

“Dad, stop! That isn’t important anymore.” I managed. “Look!”

 Dad turned his head to look at the screen. “What the hell happened to all your robots?”

_Who ordered this? Who was carrying it out? How long had this been happening?_

“All of the inactive animatronics were on missions on Earth.” Athena noted, scanning the locations column.

“Any animatronic in Tomorrowland is dissembled, any animatronic outside of Tomorrowland is shut down from here.” Frank stared at her, terrified. “You’ve got to be careful Athena.”

“There are nine others left somewhere in Tomorrowland. We must find them.” Athena shot back quickly.

Even in the urgency of the moment, they worked together well, bouncing words off each other, both comprehending the other and expanding on their statements.

“Wait!” Athena exclaimed.

“We need to find out who is doing this.” Frank finished.

Athena nodded sharply, both of their head swiveled towards me. “Casey?”

 _Yeah, I have a lot to learn_. It’s easy to forget that I’m younger then the both of them when they look so young. I turned back to the screen and scanned my way through more files associated with the recruitment program.

_File Name: Disassembly Record: Recruiter Audio-Animatronic: Juno_

Ah, a record of one of the disassembles I had in no way ordered. I opened the file. The disassemble had happened on the same day that Frank had been admitted to the hospital, my attention had clearly not been on the Program at the time. It had been done on the fifteenth floor and was ordered by the Plus Ultra.

“It can’t be.”

The Plus Ultra, the dreamers, the creators and governors of Tomorrowland, they approved and supported our Program. I knew many of them personally and spoke to them on a regular basis concerning the Program and the reparation of Tomorrowland after David Nix. The file noted their reasoning for the disassembly as being ‘corrupting the Plus Ultra philosophy of progress, opportunity and optimism with recruits who poisoned that general attitude. The disassembly had been performed by a security droid that went by the number 23.

The air seemed to have been sucked out of the room, everyone holding their breathe, waiting for some other explanation.

“Look up the security droid.” Nate suggested, he might be young, but he thought through the problem a thousand times quicker than I.

I searched through files on the security droids, I found a random communication record that was floating in cyberspace.

_“Re: Plus Ultra Defensive Robotics Programming”_

I scanned the message, the names of the participants in the conversation seemed to be irrevocably blurred out, but I understood what it was trying to say.

“They’re trying to stop the so-called corrupt recruiting program. ‘The failures of recruits brought to Tomorrowland within the past thirteen months discourage the recruits and their views on progress and must be eliminated. Those animatronic recruiters who continue to bring in bad recruits, must also be eliminated.-” I read out, I felt sick.

 _This was wrong, I know them and they would never. Am I naive in thinking that they would not double cross me?_   There was nothing wrong with out recruits, progress was being made, failing was part of that. When had the Plus Ultra grown such an iron fist?

“Defensive Androids created in the interest of this city’s protection shall be reprogrammed with the capabilities to dispose of problematic recruiters and recruits until such a time that it is deemed ‘clean’ by the Plus Ultra governing body.” I finished.

 

Frank was the first to speak. “They’re trying to wipe us out. We have to stop them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The design/idea for the repair pod and ideas from Casey and Frank's lab are based on the ideas from the Create Tomorrowland Challenge by Disney. ( http://xprizechallenge.org ) It's pretty awesome if you want to check it out, there are some brilliant minds out there :) Major credits to all participants really, we should really get on making some of this stuff.


	10. The Battle of Bridgeway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Athena and Frank search frantically to find more recruiters but discover more shocking disappearances, Casey visits the mayor of Tomorrowland and head of the Plus Ultra. An attack on Bridgeway Plaza puts the future of Tomorrowland at risk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was going to be posted last night, but I was too damn tired to write well.

**TL: Monorail Line 6, June 19 2016, 1600 Hours - Athena**

Frank Walker and I set out to round up any animatronics that may have been on the loose and in danger of disassembly. Casey had been able to contact five of the missing recruits, asking them to meet Frank and I in the Bridgeway Plaza at 1915 hours. Frank and I set out to visit labs, apartments and public areas frequented by the recruiters and their charges. Casey and Eddie Newton went to an urgent meeting with the Plus Ultra to see if they could find a more peaceable solution than the current painful disassembly. Nate Newton was sent home to more or less hide himself from any danger that might come from resisting the robotic attack force that had sprouted into existence under our very noses. Frank and I rode a monorail on the sixth path around the city, the Eiffel Biotechnological and Medical Hall of Invention was a site frequented by a missing animatronic called Pluto and his newest recruit from Earth, a brilliant young doctor by the sounds of it, who had incidentally not been heard from in a week.

“You know…” Frank began. “It would be more efficient of the Plus Ultra to gain control of the systems of the recruiter animatronics and use them against the recruits. Instead of breaking them all.”

“Perhaps they are unable to, we are very tightly protected. Perhaps that is why they dissemble us, thereby they can know more about how we work and gain control of those who remain.”

“But that seems inefficient, they could simply steal Casey’s files that seem to be floating everywhere and have an army of fifty, much larger then they’d get at this rate.”

“Frank, if you are not careful I should have cause to worry about your allegiances.”

Frank laughed loudly, joyfully. It was a pleasant sound, it was pleasant to know he was not completely crushed by the newest debacle. “You always say the strangest things.” Frank said shaking his head.

“No, I don’t.”

Frank opened his mouth to reply, but the intercom announcing our arrival near the E.H.I. interrupted him.

“This is us.” he amended, standing as the vehicle lurched to a stop. “Do they still have my stopping device implanted here? I think it’s defective.”

“It’s been many many years.” I replied, stepping out of the monorail, into a gust of wind. Frank’s hair danced across his face in the wind, becoming rather untidy. I folded my hands behind my back, fighting down the powerful compulsion or desire to reach out and straighten them.

“So!” Frank began. “On to the Eiffel Hall! Is everything okay?”

“Of course.” I walked towards Frank, then past Frank, continuing on towards the lab. “We won’t let them take you apart, Athena.”

“I know. I won’t let them take me apart.” I figured I wouldn’t need Frank’s or Casey’s help if it ever boiled down to it. Brilliant and creative they might be, but good in a fight, they were not. “You couldn’t fight them.”

Frank nodded, his head bouncing unevenly as he jogged to catch up with me. “Yeah. Please don’t let them kill me?”

“Of course.” I waited for a moment, when he drew level with me, I began to walk again.

We continued down the street, the sun was drawing ever closer to the horizon, I scanned the people milling about on the street, looking for the tell-tale animatronic signs. They always wore long sleeves, those wearing long sleeves were those to watch, panels implanted in our bodies draw unwanted attention when seen by humans. Their eyes focused far differently then any humans, our eyes were much more like a camera-lens making for a slightly less smooth motion than humans. Animatronics would not breathe, humans rarely noticed they don’t look to see if people are breathing, but breathing or lack thereof is glaringly obvious to me.

Then, I spotted one, he looked physically young and male; thirteen by human standards, his hair was dark, his skin tanned, his eyes narrow and less prominent. He wore clothes much like Frank’s: a casual jacket, denim pants, boots and a t-shirt, apart from his neck, hands and face, every inch of his skin was meticulously covered.

“Young boy at our ten o’clock, he’s one of them.” Frank instead of whipping his head around to look at the boy, had learned to look out of his peripheral vision.

“Really, with the clocks again? You know I don’t deal well with this.”

“Well, I’m not about to point, let’s not make it obvious.”

“What are we going to do?”  

“Follow him. Wait until we’re in a more private area to approach him. There are some defense droids over there.”

“I thought you said don’t make it obvious!”

“It is possible to discreetly follow someone.”

“I’d really like to see you try.”

“It’s going to be a nice evening for you then. Stop arguing and bear right, also smile a little more, don’t look so stressed.” I tempered my words with a bright smile.

Frank smiled back at me, but his eyes asked questions.

“You said not to be obviously about it, Frank.” I let out a small giggle as to finish off my sentence.

“Terrifying.” Frank muttered dryly. “I could live another hundred years without hearing that noise and be very very happy.”

“You’re not usually this difficult to cooperate with, you are making me very frustrated.”

Frank held up his hands in what I now recognize as a gesture of surrender. “I’m sorry.”

 

The robot we were following turned down a side street to the right, we followed him.

“Oh by the way, do you recognize his name at all?” I asked, carefully not referring to the boy in front of us, he could absolutely hear us. “You did lose some memories, but you can often place faces.”

“No, I can’t remember.” he announced catching on, then mouthed the word ‘Helios’.

“I am sorry, I know this is very hard for you.” I replied, nodding emphatically, carefully avoiding looking too much at Helios. But I noted that he had turned into an alleyway on the left.

“Oh, Athena!” Frank grabbed my hand speaking rather dramatically, I was about to scold him until he started pulling me down the alleyway chattering excitedly about ‘something’ he’d ‘thought’ about creating to help keep Tomorrowland clean. _Well done, Frank Walker_. The sensors in my hand grew warm, they seemed to sing in the pleasant event that Frank touched them.

In the alleyway, Helios seemed to notice our determined following for the first time, he turned to stare at us, then quickly back away from us.

_Were we alone?_

“Look!” Frank exclaimed, grabbing me around the waist and spinning around, giving us each the opportunity to scan our surroundings. I did not noticed anything, I nodded to Frank.

“Helios.” Frank said softly.

Helios whipped around again, ray-gun pointed at Frank’s chest. “You are following me.”

I stepped in front of Frank, I was more resilient to ray-guns, provided their beams weren’t very high. “Frank, stay back. Let me talk.”

Helios turned his head to look at me curiously.

“Athena?”

“Yes, yes. You were built in my image, you know all about me and that I was dead. I was rebuilt.” I skimmed over the boring details. “No doubt you’ve heard what happened at the base this morning.”

“Obviously. Ten recruits have gone missing in the past week, have you heard of that too?” He sounded accusatory, but he lowered his gun.

_Ten recruits… I hadn’t known at all._

Frank made a horrified noise behind me.

“We can help, we are gathering the remaining ten of us on Bridgeway Plaza at 1915 hours, we have been able to contact units Artemis, Mors, Eos, Nemesis and Jupiter. We are in search of yourself, Pluto and two others; Pan and Venus if I recall correctly.”

Which of course I did, I am incapable of forgetting.

“Well, you found me, I can help you find the others. Who’s the human?”

“He’s my-“

“Frank Walker.”

I nodded, of course the sentence didn’t make much linguistic sense, however, Frank was capable of speaking for himself.

“I suppose _your_ Frank Walker can come too… Are we waiting for something? Rain? Smoke signals? Hurry up!”

**TL: Tesla Hall of Invention on Bridgeway Plaza, June 19 2016, 1730 Hours Casey Newton**

I’ll make this brief: the Plus Ultra that govern Tomorrowland officially, are not the instigators of these attacks. I was at a loss for how to proceed. Was the information false? An alias? An underground division of the same name? A decoy? All plausible, no proof of anything one way or another. Frank had contacted me while I was meeting with the Plus Ultra, he said that ten recruits had disappeared mysteriously within the past week. I had so far heard nothing of that, despite being very close friends with many of the recruits. It scared me that with three days or less of inattention, this could happen. But it scared me even more to think that it was a process that extended beyond this short time span.

I sat alone in our lab on a cold metal stool, leaning my elbows on the lab counter, my face in my hands. From here I could stare out the window at Bridgeway Plaza, people who don’t know the danger we’re in mill about below. Sometimes I wish I could join them, be here, enjoy the place without having to deal with multiple crises per day. Was it really just this morning that I had gone to work with Dad and Frank? Was it this morning that we might of fixed the Site once and for all were it not for the explosion? Don’t get me wrong, I like adventures, but honestly, when was the last time I wasn’t in danger again?

Frank hadn’t been in touch for forty-five minutes, I flipped over my phone impatiently to see if he had sent a text message. Nothing from Frank, several concerned messages from Nate asking if he could leave the house, if everything was okay. I replied that we were waiting to find out and that he should stay put. I put no specifications in my messages to Nate, apparently something that you do to avoid having ideas and plans stolen; Frank may have been a little paranoid.

The door creaked open. “Case?”

“Hey Dad.” I said flatly, turning only slightly to make sure it was Dad coming in and not some crazy robot.

“Found anything?”

“I haven’t been trying. I am at a loss for how to deal with this.”

“They can’t get us if we go back home Casey, don’t forget that.”

“I’m not leaving Dad, you and Nate are free to do whatever you like, but I can’t just abandon this place.”

**TL: Bridgeway Plaza, June 19 2016 1900 Hours - Athena**

Helios had taken us into a tiny room just off the alleyway, where he had three other animatronics had stashed themselves away, the room had been set up like a much smaller version of the fourteenth floor of the base. Screens with maps and records lined the room; three childlike animatronics sat facing each other in the middle of the room. They turned and looked cautiously at us as we came in, they were initially suspicious; Pluto, a pale figure that looked to be physically eleven years old had not wanted to grant Frank admission. Venus, a feminine android with dark skin and curly hairs who appeared to be slightly older than I must appear recognized him as Frank Walker. The third one, Pan, forced us to explain ourselves, our position and our goals. So many of those things were not yet defined because there were so many facts missing. However with significant persuasion and explanations, they consented to accompany us to Bridgeway Plaza to find other recruiters.

We split into two groups of three to appear less conspicuous to the passerby and boarded the same monorail path back to Bridgeway Plaza. I rode with Frank and Pluto, and the latter being deeply distrustful of the former, it was something of an uncomfortable ride.

“I thought you were dead.” Pluto said bluntly. “He said you were.” he jerked his head towards Frank.

_How many times am I supposed to explain this?_ Being reprogrammed involved much repetitive explanation of what happened.

“Rebuilt. Reprogrammed.”

“Why? Aren’t you the one that _evolved?_ ”

Well, perhaps I wouldn’t replay that entire conversation at the time, needless to say Frank almost fought Pluto and remembering things would’ve done no good at the time.

I was surrounded by recruits, standing in the middle of Bridgeway Plaza and everyone had questions. We had explained to them what we knew, we explained Casey’s news about the Plus Ultra, that it was a third party who was in disagreement with us and had the power to tear us down. We explained that we did not know who this third party was exactly, where they hid themselves or what we could do about it. Frank Walker left the explaining to me, being around his creations but not remembering them at all was clearly an unnerving experience.

Frank Walker stood close enough that our shoulders touched, our hands brushed when he turned his head; shifting his center of balance; a shiver ran along the sensors in my arm, much like the chill I’d experienced when he kissed me in the Edison Lab.

“Well, how are we expected to protect ourselves from these people trying to take us apart?” one animatronic asked loudly. “What did they do with our recruits?”

“Watch out!” Another animatronic cried, throwing themselves on the ground.

My head whipped around, twenty of the defense droids were marching into the plaza, formed into four perfect lines of four figures, guns out.

Citizens screamed and scattered, running every which way; our small group held their ground, many of us crouching or laying flat.

“Recruiters, stand down.” announced one of the droids.

“They have no reason to do this.” Frank muttered.

“They are the police, reprogrammed or not.” I replied.

 I looked up, Bridgeway had been all but vacated and the droids were getting closer. I writhed on the ground until I could open the panel in my left side and pull out my ray-gun, my sensors scraping painfully against the rough surface of the ground. Concealing my ray-gun carefully, I aimed it at the foot of one of the droids and shot; the shot took his foot clean off, leaving nothing but burned wires. The droid lost its balance and toppled over, interrupting the systemic organization of the guard. Each guard let off a storm of lasers from their guns, breaking formation and running towards us. Now their attack was provoked, _chaos, good._

I stood up, dashing towards the nearest droid, somersaulting under the ray he shot towards me, I collided with his feet, knocking him to the ground. I threw myself over him, keeping him on the ground while I tore open his shoulder panel, aimed my ray-gun inside and pulled the trigger. A continuous laser beam tore apart his main control systems in the shoulder panel, his essential systems and thus he himself we destroyed in under twenty seconds. Two more droids were right behind the last, grabbing my arms and lifting me off him. I threw myself into a backwards flip, twisting my arms out of their grasps and landing face down on the pavement. Pain. I pushed myself upwards, knocking one assailant over with a sharp kick to the ankle. While the first struggled to regain control of himself; I used my arms to launch myself foot-first into the second’s chest. I landed with a loud cracking noise on his chest, whatever made up his chest gave way, broken metal bits tore through the skin on his chest, sending black oil like that which was inside of me bubbling outwards. I used my ray-gun to destroy his exposed power source. I turned back to face the other one, only to find him decapitated, a device I recognized as Frank’s from many many years ago lay on the ground beside the severed neck. _Thank you Frank Walker._ I collected the device.

I looked up in search of Frank, the once large defense force had been somewhat destroyed; one recruiter lay on the ground also decapitating, it took me a moment to recognize the recruiter as Helios. Grief and horror built in my stomach, _we have to end this._

_Where was Frank?_

Bridgeway Plaza has it’s name for two reasons, the first being it is crisscrossed by many physical bridges and arches for transportation and architectural support. The second being, this was where the ‘bridge’ between Earth and Tomorrowland was now located. The ‘bridge’ looked like an archway for lack of a better word, it was entirely shut off right now, only to be turned on when needed for transport, it was extremely dangerous otherwise.

I spotted Frank, being held by two of the droids a few feet to the right of the Bridge, he was unable to fight two fully functioning droids off.

I started towards him.

His head turned towards me in his struggle, I saw his mouth open, beginning to call for me.

One of the droids holding him grabbed a loose wire I had not noted before, holding it to his gun.

He aimed the gun towards Frank, I sped up, my head was perfectly clear in the moment of panic, I did not register anything but the need to stop whatever was happening from ever occurring.

I was so close.

The droid fired the gun with the wire attached to it, there was no blinding light, just force.

An invisible force that exploded outwards, knocking me backwards, the Bridgeway arch collapsed in the sheer force, it was the last thing I saw before my head hit the ground, momentarily disorienting me.

Frank!

I sat up, what had happened to my friend after the blast?

The guards who’d had him were still in the same place, getting to their feet, regaining control of themselves.

Frank was gone, he wasn’t with them.

Something had happened to him.

The plaza was deadly silent.

My brain did not want to think about the implications of Frank’s disappearance.

But it was real. _Real._

Frank Walker is gone.

Rage surged through me, canceling out the numb horror. I climbed to my feet and dashed towards the guard who’d attached the wire to the gun moments before. Launching myself towards him, we rolled over each other several times before coming to a stop, me kneeling on his chest.

“What did you do with Frank Walker?” I ground out. “What are you doing with the recruits.”

“They don’t belong here, they belong on Earth.” The droid smiled. “The humans here are the problem, they cannot be programmed to perfection. But don’t worry Athena, Frank Walker will be safe and happy in his Earthen home and you won’t be around long enough to miss him.”

 

Using Frank's device, I killed him.


	11. Home Wheat Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Athena sets out to recover Frank. Casey manages Public Relations in Tomorrowland. Frank wakes up in his rather destroyed home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day, bam! 
> 
> Wait for it....

**TL: Tesla Hall of Invention, June 20 2016 300 Hours - Athena**

I know that it was three in the morning and that my eyes were closed, I did not know where I was or how I ended up here. I find that I didn’t care to know and didn’t care to open my eyes. Something rather scratchy rubs against the sensors on the front part of my body. Then I hear voices.

“Computer says she rebooted two minutes ago Casey.” It was Salim, one of the scientists who had worked to rebuild me.

“Why is she not awake?” Casey.

“Maybe she does not want to.” Soraya, another scientist. “She lost Frank.”

“I’m hoping she doesn’t grieve like a human in that case.” Casey snapped. “The other recruiters told me what happened sure, they’re pushing me to let them go to Earth to find the missing recruits. Frank isn’t gone, he can’t be.”

No, Frank is not gone, but he was returned to Earth, there is no telling what that could entail. I forced my eyes to open.

“She’s awake!” Casey announced, relief in her voice. “Athena…” She seemed at a loss for words.

I pushed myself upwards, I was lying on the counter in Casey’s laboratory, covered by a papery thin white hospital gown, perhaps my clothes were ruined. The gown crackled when I moved. Along one wall, eight remaining recruiters sat staring at the wall in front of them, no one was speaking. Casey, Salim and Soraya, my usual team hovered over me.

I felt numb.

“The last defense droid in the square severed your spinal column, it was the power source to your brain, so repairs were needed.” Soraya told me. “But everything is fixed now, and we have all been briefed on the fight.”

“All members of the recruiter program have been alerted of the situation and if they so choose, brought to a secure location.”

“I’m working on securing controls on all remaining recruiters, if I can go back and deny all other devices access to this information, we could rescue the inactive animatronics stuck on Earth.” Casey explained. “I’ll need another twenty minutes at most.”

No one seemed inclined to mention the recruit we had just lost in the fight. “And what about Frank Walker?”

Casey raised her eyebrows. “You never miss a beat, do you? We haven’t been able to contact him, obviously, that’s not something our limited communications allow. But we do have a few leads, the wire was programmed with a location; wherever he previously visited on Earth. I don’t know exactly how it works, if it’s through records, or memories or where his cells have been. But it cuts down the options significantly.”

_Paris, France or the Walker Farm in Pittsfield, New York, United States of America._

“And what are we going to do about that?” I prodded. “It is not only Frank, Casey, ten of our recruits, we cannot leave them. What about transport to Earth? Is it functional?”

“Bridgeway fell during the fight, but it’s not necessarily a reason why it shouldn’t work, we’d just need to temporarily realign the magnets to create the portal.”

The magnets in Bridgeway create negative energy which serves to push us through space, it was not necessary to have an arch, but it was more for aesthetic appeal.

“When you are able to privatize the Plus Ultra recruiter program, I will travel to Earth and collect Frank. And other recruits that wish to return.” I wasn’t asking Casey, it was something that would happen with or without her consent.

“And how are you getting back?” Casey asked. “Are there other hidden entrances like Paris?”

“Thomas Edison’s home, much like the Eiffel Tower contains an emergency entrance, it will be function, provided it is still unused.”

“It is.” Salim said, scanning something on his computer. “It says here that it hasn’t been.”

“Convenient.” Casey muttered. “Are you sure about this Athena, it’s not the safest endeavor. And not the safest place for recruits at the moment.”

“We can keep them safe, the unknown is not safe.”

“If you are sure. There is another matter at hand however, the general public, families and such of the recruits and especially the remaining recruits, anyone else who is here for technological or medical needs: They’re all endangered if the pseudo-Plus Ultra people are launching publics assaults on you.”

I nodded, it seemed to be a problem but there were very few realistic explanations; the sick could not leave their hospital beds. Children, those who had grown old here would not deal well with any sort of restrictions. “Given the attack from last night and the attack on the Base, there’s no point in pretending we don’t know what is happening. Issuing a general warning would be a first step. Offering shelter in a large secure location if things become too hazardous. And trying to find the base where these people are working from, remaining recruits, yourself, your family, the Mayor, you will easily manage it.”

Casey listened to me, searching furiously through her files. “You’re very calm, I don’t feel calm, I think I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. Soraya, Salim, sound like a good plan to you?- Soraya?”

I turned towards the two scientists, it was odd what they did; cradling each others faces and pressing their lips to the other person’s. I had lived many many years in the company of human beings, but I’ve never seen this happen before.

 _“Oh my god.”_ Casey groaned. “This is a holy place of science and engineering, what do you think you are doing?!”

Soraya turned, her blood rushed to her face. “Sorry Casey, Athena.”

“What were they doing?” I asked Casey, once Soraya had turned her back.

Casey looked at me startled. “Well, they love each other so wait- you’ve never seen that before?”

“No.”

“Oh, okay. Yeah, it’s just a thing that humans do to express affection, it’s supposed to be nice. Anyways, I should probably find you clothes.” She pulled a box out from under the counter and began throwing pieces of cloth around. “This one or this one?” She held up two similarly shaped but differently colored shirts.

 _She wants me to choose one. How?_ “I don’t know.”

“Here!” She tossed me the black one.

Casey’s computer issued a small _ping_ , Casey cheered. “We’re safe from reprogrammed recruiters!”

 

I will save the boring details of sorting out the mission to Earth, the distribution of clothes and repetitive questions, it is not worth dwelling on at any time. Our journey to Earth began at 530 Hours that morning, all remaining recruiters were eager to go and search out the missing recruits. The eight of us gathered at Bridgeway, Soraya and Salim held up the two magnets, rather small but extremely powerful. When the magnets were aligned, Casey flipped the power switch and programmed in a destination on the computer she’d attached to the device with a smattering of wires.

“Next stop, Thomas Edison’s former front lawn.” She announced.

A swirling, dancing blue light appeared; connected the two magnets, hope grew inside me, we would always recover things that we lost as I had always been able to.

Casey motioned me towards the repaired portal, stopping me before I entered, she embraced me and told me to be careful and “For god’s sake don’t let Frank Walker do anything ridiculous”. Before giving me a light push towards Bridgeway, it was all I needed, I took a bounding step and jumped through the doorway.

The best way I can describe jumping through Bridgeway is a strong wind, pulling at you and pushing you all at once from every direction, almost like spinning. And speed, so fast that it stings against my sensors, my hair whips against my face, the ends like tiny grains of sand striking my face. My arms fly outwards from sheer force, but my legs are pressed together tightly. Self preservative programming force my eyes and mouth tightly while the ride lasts.

Suddenly I am in the grass, tumbling side over side along a neatly kept lawn and it is raining heavily droplets spattering against the back of my neck. Ahead of me I see a grand red house, I recognize it immediately, the home of Thomas Edison: founder of the Plus Ultra. It might have been a sentimental moment for the founders of my cause were they not trying to kill us now.

The nine other recruits soon followed, falling horizontally out of thin air and hitting the ground, rolling with the impact and then standing. None of us were Caseys here, no one felt the need to stick around and ask too many questions, it was briefly clarified that we would return to this location when the recruits were found or heard from. Many of the animatronics had a very long way to travel; meanwhile, the benefit of my recruit? A mere three hour trip by car if things went according to plan.

There were no cars to steal at Thomas Edison’s former home, unfortunately, either there was no one currently there, or other recruits had reached the parking area before I. Fortunately, it took me less than four minutes to run into the town center of West Orange and locate a dealership for automobiles. It was closed at this time of the morning, 540 hours, but ten minutes had passed since I was in an entirely different dimension.

I found a car, nearly the same as the one Casey and I had taken to Frank’s last year. I fiddled with the lock until it opened and climbed into the driver-seat. I tore aside a plastic panel near the ignition, there were three pairs of wires to choose from each representing different key positions. I know from experience, it most frequently, the red colored wires. I ripped them from the cylinder and stripped them over their rubber coverings. Electric shocks danced over my hands, but did not bother me to the point that I could not continue. I twisted and connected the wires, the vehicle hummed and then roared to life, all lights switching on. I was oh-so fortunate that this particular car didn’t have one of those cursed mechanisms, the ones that would not turn the steering wheels without keys in the ignition. I fastened the safety belt around my torso and pulled out of the parking lot.

The dashboard clock read 5:50 am, as I sped out of West Orange onto the I-280 towards New York.

 

**TL: Plus Ultra Hall, June 20 2016, 800 Hours - Casey Newton**

“Citizens of Tomorrowland, my name is Casey Newton, many of you probably know me as the person who created the recruiter program or destroyed the Oracle last year. I am here with our Mayor this morning and I have a very important message for you. As you may recall, the Base of Operations for the recruiter program was destroyed yesterday morning but the self-destruct function of an animatronic. Now, as fellow recruits, we must all agree that our animatronic guides are a large influence and beacon of hope. The ones who brought us to this lovely city and we must therefore all agree that the disassembly of our friends, allies and helpers is wrong. On a rather confusing note, a group falsely calling themselves the Plus Ultra have taken over our defense forces technologically and began to disassemble the program I built with Frank Walker. I am here to caution all citizens to be wary of defense droids and to offer them protection in the Tesla Hall of Invention near Bridgeway Plaza. We are working to amend the situation and restore the city to it’s former safe status. We need all the help we can get, we need you, if you have any information regarding the pseudo-Plus Ultra, please contact us with any information you may have. We realize that this may be a frightening and confusing time for many of you, as well as myself. But I have helped save Tomorrowland once and will do everything I can to do so again. Thank you very much for your time have a safe and pleasant day.” I finished with a confident grin at the camera.

One of the Plus Ultra congresswomen was watching me as I gave the speech on camera for the citizens of Tomorrowland, outlining the debacle and offering possible solutions. A big part of Plus Ultra solutions seemed to be involving as many people in the solution as possible, following the philosophy of teamwork, ideas and innovation.

The congresswoman smiled at me as I finished. “Thank you Miss Newton, it was so good you to speak to the citizens in such a manner, and arrange your laboratory building as a safe-house for those in need. You are a great leader Casey.”

“Thank you ma’am.”

“And how’s Mister Walker doing after the accident?”

“He was improving, his recruiter Athena was really helping him with readjustment. He doesn’t remember myself or my family too well. But it will come with time.”

“Of course.” she smiled.

“He probably will not remember me, but I give him my best wishes for a speedy recovery.”

_Yeah, Frank isn’t here anymore, that’s the problem with this segment of the conversation._

My phone rang and the congresswoman wished me a nice day, Frank Walker was trying to call me.

**E: Walker Farm, Pittsfield New York, June 20 2016, 830 Hours - Frank Walker**

My eyes flew open in shock, sunlight was streaming into the room I was covered by several heavy quilts and curled against a pillow, it was pleasantly warm, quiet. I felt almost at peace. And then my heart stopped dead in its tracks. I was home, as in, my farmhouse home, as in New York, as in Earth. And there was an enormous gaping hole in my bedroom floor. I might’ve screamed if I could find my voice, I jumped out of bed, narrowly avoiding the hole that looked down into the kitchen. I pounded down the stairs in fright, only to see the scattered remains of a suit-clad audio animatronic on the ground. _What the hell?_

A heavy iron panel blocked my way into the kitchen except for a hole that had been sliced through it, apparently with a laser. I crawled through into the kitchen, or what was left of it: the refrigerator had been knocked sideways, the chairs and table were but piles of sticks on the floor, the walls were marred with burn marks and the cabinet door hung on by a single hinge. I crossed into what I remember being the pantry, another metal block on the door across from me. One of the walls was lined with dusty but relatively new computer screens, on the counter below the screens there were a variety of buttons. Buttons with curious labels like ‘Floor Collapser’ or ‘Kitchen Doorway Electrocution’, it took my sleep-riddled, terror-stricken mind a while to comprehend that this was the aftermath to whatever attack I’d survived here with Casey. And that if I’d hd any doubts that any of Athena’s story had ever happened; here was the proof I needed.

 _Now what was the last thing I remembered?_ I remembered Bridgeway Plaza, being held down by two animatronic guards, Athena running towards me and then waking up here. I looked down, I was wearing the same clothing as in my last memories, my cheek still stung with a cut I’d gotten during the Bridgeway Plaza fight. I tapped my pockets, I still had the telephone that Casey had given me to contact her with, it told me the date was June twentieth, _it hasn’t been long. Thank God._

I pressed the button next to Casey’s name, the dialing screen popped up, and then an error message, telling me that my call was out of range.

By instinct I hurried into the next room over, this one too was full of screens on one wall, this time with a chair and table filled with devices the past-future me had been playing around with. Curiously, a blank stop-clock sat at the forefront of the mess. I used a screwdriver to pry the back off of the telephone and removed the programming card. I took the tiny chip and inserted it into the back of the monitor, tapping a button on the side. The monitor flickered on, I opened the programming file for the chip and scanned the programs, altering a few of them in ways that I hoped would expand the range of a call. Then I removed it from the computer and stuck it back into the phone and redialed Casey.

She picked up on the second ring. “Frank?!” she exclaimed. It was such a relief to hear her talk.

“Hey Casey, what the hell is going on?”

The line went fuzzy for a moment.

“-I sent her for you Frank, everything is going to be- Hello? Frank? Frank?” Casey called,

I kept saying ‘Here’ but she didn’t seem to hear me.

“I have to hang up Frank, if you can hear me, don’t worry.”

The line went dead, I tossed the phone at the wall in irritation.

_Casey said someone was coming for me? Who? What had happened? Had the others made it out of the fight?_

As if on cue to my questions; someone was pounding on my door, I fled the room, making my wall laboriously around the many obstacles brought on by the attack last year until I reached the front door.

The pounding hadn’t stopped, I could faintly hear someone call ‘Frank’.

I put my eye up to the peephole and relief flooded me, they had sent Athena to come and get me.

I threw open the door without a moment’s hesitation. “Athena!”

Her eyes widened. “Frank!” She threw her arms around my neck and pressed her lips to mine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jfc Athena.


	12. Just Get In The Car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frank joins Athena on her Earthen adventure to Thomas Edison's house and her mission to return to Tomorrowland.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's Frank gonna do???

**E: Walker Farm, Pittsfield New York, June 20 2016, 930 Hours - Athena**

Frank Walker had a lot of questions and not all of them were relevant. He didn’t say much when I showed up at his house, he didn’t ask questions when I told him to fetch anything else he wanted to bring and get in the car. He didn’t ask where I’d gotten the car or how I knew how to drive it. He strapped himself into the passenger-seat and away we went. The problem, the questions started the minute we pulled out of the driveway.

“What the hell?” Frank Walker sputtered. “What the hell.”

“I don’t know what you’re asking me.” I said patiently, staring intently at the road in front of me, unsure of how to explain any of this. How could I explain what had happened to him, how I’d gotten here, what had happened with the others, where Casey Newton was. How could I possibly explain about the fake Plus Ultra and how we were going to save Tomorrowland. The latter, I didn’t know myself yet.

_“Did you just kiss me?”_

“Yes.” I said, simply. Frank could have asked about many many things and he chose such an insignificant one, I was surprised and rather thrown by the topic. But if this was the current point of contention, it would make Frank happier to talk.

“Just ‘yes’, is that really all you have to say?” Frank Walker didn’t sound so much angry as frustrated.

Was there anything else to say? I cared for Frank, I had been worried for him when he was sent away and I was of course relieved when I was able to find him again. Affection. Casey had told me it was a gesture of affection, that it was supposed to be nice. I had found it rather nice and reassuring that Frank was there after the hours of worry about his disappearance. I do not produce dopamine, but my sensors do enjoy the feeling of certain things, frankly it was the opposite of physically unpleasant.

“No, it was an honest answer Frank, we both know that.”

“Yes, but… what the hell? I mean why- I mean, you can’t just do that and not give any explanation Athena!”

“You really shouldn’t be as angry as you are Frank, being a human I had thought you would understand the gesture. Casey said-“

“Casey?”

“Yes, that it was a human gesture of affection.” _Humans also make small things into large issues. Please, let us discuss something important._

“Of affection? Jesus Christ, Casey… I will have words with that girl on how to deal with non-human culture.“

“Frank, it isn’t important. Don’t you want to know other things?”

“Yeah, what the hell happened to my house?”

“Nix’s animatronics when they were trying to get a hold on Casey, she was hiding in your house and so they attacked. You escaped in the bathtub if I remember correctly, you probably don’t have one anymore.”

“Well, I gained a lot of robot carcasses lying around my house.”

“Hardly a fair trade, I’m sorry.”

Frank laughed, but I don’t see how it was funny. But he was no longer yelling.

I gripped the steering wheel tightly, staring down the grey expanse of pavement, the only dash of color in the world seemed to be the relentless green leaves, weighing down every branch of every tree. I knew Frank was watching me, it wasn’t subtle enough to escape even my peripheral vision. I simply did not understand why this upset him so much.

“So, other animatronics are finding the lost recruits? There are still only ten?”

“It’s only ten.”

“Tomorrowland is populated with your recruits, why are you concerned at losing just ten?” Frank asked. “Is there any proof that they left unwillingly?”

“You’re the proof, are you not?”

“Well, yes but-“

“And the things we have heard from Casey’s reports. If they do not wish to return they are not mandated to, but we do not want to simply abandon them, those are ten lives and ten of our citizens.”

A horrifying thought occurred to me, I slowed the car.

“Do you want to return to Tomorrowland, Frank?”

Frank turned to me in surprise. “Of course I do!”

“All right, simply making certain.” I sped up the car again, relieved.

“Where are you taking me? What are we doing about the missing animatronics? Did we find anything more on these not-the-actual Plus Ultra people?”

Now the interrogation begins.

“There hadn’t been anything new when I left. Casey closed off the files so that only she had access to them and she was going to try and resurrect the thirty missing animatronics who are ‘inactive’. If she succeeds they will return with us.”

“And how is that happening?”

“Thomas Edison’s home in West Orange, New Jersey is much like the Eiffel Tower, surely you remember that.”

“No need to sound so condescending, I do apparently have an especially annoying variation of permanent amnesia.”

“Apologies.”

“Thank you.” Frank said, turning to look out the window, he was quiet, but the frequent opening and closing of his mouth seemed to indicate that he had something he wanted to say. Either unsure or afraid, he didn’t seem to be achieving any actual sounds. “Where did you get the car?” He asked finally.

“In West Orange, I took it from a dealership.”

“You mean you stole it?”

“I fully intend to return it once we no longer need it.”

“There are so many things we could be arrested for in this scenario.” Frank muttered, his voice tight with concern.

“I am perfectly capable of handling police officers, Frank. I have been doing this for many many years.”

Frank nodded at me. “I hope you do.”

**E: Thomas Edison Home, West Orange New Jersey, June 20th 2100 Hours - Frank Walker**

Athena, as usual was an excellent partner on any mission, she drove us to West Orange in three and a half hours. We arrived at the Edison home merely a few minutes past the three-point-five marker, only to discover, there was no other member of the group had arrived back yet. Athena explained that while animatronics could manage things quickly, intercontinental travel would take them a few hours longer. She turned around and drove back to the center of town; we drove by a few attractions; a park, a museum dedicated to Thomas Edison. Athena stopped the car in front of a convenience store, handed me fifteen dollars and told me to get something to eat. When I came back out, she was fiddling with the dashboard controls in fascination, when I opened the door, I was bombarded with freezing air. At the convenience store, she realized that with very little gas left in the car, we should best be getting back to Edison’s house because she did not have anything to pay for a refill. She drove cautiously and avoided wasting gas on downhill stretches until we reached the visitor parking lot.

This time, eleven rather discouraged looking kids between the ages of nine and fourteen sat on the curb. I recognized three as recruiters, three I assume as recruits I had known before the accident, I could place their names and six other figures, animatronic recruiters Athena explained. I found that I did recognize them, placing faces with various names of ancient deities, I figured the naming patterns of the animatronics were a very Casey Newton-like idea. I don’t think I believe Athena’s claim that it was the idea of the former me. We climbed out of the car and introduced ourselves. Athena explained that everyone who had returned by nine o’clock that evening would be allowed into the Edison House and given a place on the secret transport that would take us home. I hadn’t known this before Athena explained it in front of the thirteen people present, _good to know._

Athena spoke with the others, some of whom were the deactivated animatronics who had been stuck on Earth explaining all the things that have occurred in the past few days. I leaned against the shining, black hood of the car dowsing off, it was raining lightly and the moisture in the air more than anything, chilled me to the bone.

 

“Frank, wake up.” Athena was shaking my shoulder, standing in the open doorway to the passenger side of a car…

… Somehow I ended up back inside the car in the passenger-seat, my coat had been removed, a sweatshirt I recognized as Athena’s had been draped over my shoulders.

“What?” I mumbled, brushing the sleep from my eyes. “What’s going on?”

“You getting a little sleep, we decided to let you.”

I heard several scoffs from outside the car, a voice I knew to be Pluto said something about ‘Athena’s human’. This kid irritated me, now I’m sure I was all for varying to personality types of our recruiters, but who thought this guy was a good idea?

The clock on the dashboard tells me it is a little after nine o’clock in the evening.

“That was a pretty long nap.” I commented.

“Well, given that you were able to pass out standing up, in the rain, I assumed you were quite exhausted. But now, we have to go.”

“Is everyone here?”

“We are missing about fifteen androids, but we will have to make do without them, all the citizens are here, that is what it important.”

I didn’t want to leave any androids behind, unless of course it involved getting rid of the insufferable Pluto, but that’s another conversation. But I knew Tomorrowland needed us back as soon as possible, as strong as we could be, waiting around wasn’t going to help the ‘soon’ part.

I jumped out of the car taking a moment to steady myself, my head spun for a moment with the shock of standing up too fast and walked over to join the others. Everyone in the group looks to Athena for guidance, I feel as though I may have taught every robot I built a lot about Athena and how awesome she was, given that they all looked up to her so much. For her part, Athena looked slightly discomfited but the utter faith everyone had in her to figure this out, she told us to wait a moment and darted around the side of the building.

“Do you know who that is?” a girl next to me asked excited. I knew her name to be Anna Nobel, and that she was a brilliantly, creative writer. “That’s Athena, the one Frank Walker always told us about.”

I laughed. “I am Frank Walker.”

Athena, reappearing, motioned the group silently around the side of the house, we trudged after her.

“No you aren’t.” Anna said indignantly. “Mr. Walker is old.”

“So you didn’t hear about the accident? The Site returned me to a former physical state, it’s a long medical explanation, I don’t understand much of it. Cellular level bullshit.”

“Well, I guess you kind of look like him…” She seemed suspicious still. “But anyways, that’s Athena, this is so cool!”

“Yes, she’s something.” The group was coming to a stop behind a large bush, the bush provided privacy to a back cellar entrance to the red-brick house. I rounded the corner just in time to see Athena _smash down_ the door. It caved with a loud _bang!_

“A little dramatic, don’t you think?” I whispered into her ear.

“The lock would have taken to long.”

“Still dramatic, drop kicking a door down is something you’d only do in a film.”

 

Athena walked past me into a narrow corridor with a ceiling low enough that I had to bend at the waist to avoid hitting my head.

The corridor was filled with the sounds of shuffling fifty feet and the breathing of ten humans. The walls were damp, fortunately, I am not claustrophobic, unfortunately the recruit walking just behind me, was. Many of the recruiters pulled out flashlight from god knows where, dancing the beams across the walls as we walked. It was a surprisingly far and unsurprisingly unpleasant trip into the heart of the old inventor’s mansion.

_How the hell does Athena even know where she is going?_

But she pulled through, a door appeared to our left and we crowded through, the room beyond appeared like any late-1800s study, dark polished furniture, deep reds, green and golds as a color scheme. Books lined the shelves, maps and diagrams were nailed to the walls, almost completely obscured the faded wallpaper.

“Is it a rocket? Or a doorway?” asked one of the recruits; a tall East-Asian guy who looked to be about twenty-five.

“I am inclined to believe rocket but I am unsure.”

“If this was an emergency entrance for four inventors, how the hell are we all going to fit?” Another recruit, this time a Brazilian girl with excessive paint on her hands and clothes.

“We’ll make do.” Athena replied, flipping a switch on the desk.

The panel on the wall, covered by a bookshelf swung aside revealing the interior of an antique rocket-ship, almost identical to the one in Paris; Edison, Tesla, Verne and Eiffel had implanted the same sort of technology in different hidden locations around the globe. I’d always known this somewhere in the back of my mind, but their level of cooperation and dedication to the cause of progress and dreamers and the Plus Ultra never fails to leave me in awe.

No one was wasting time standing and gaping as I did, they pushed past me, knocking me off balance several times on their way into the shuttle, Athena grabbed my arm and pulled me inside. There were seats ringing the entire circular area, enough to seat thirty, I turned to Athena questioningly.

“Edison had quite a household?” Not many children, I knew, but I was no expert on who lived or passed a lot of time at Glenmont.

“Not really, I would think that this one would be used when the Plus Ultra gained more members.”

“And it has.” I agreed.

_Forethought, I wish I had more forethought._

“Is everyone secured?” Athena called out, her voice only slightly painfully loud so close to my ears.

The chorus of yeses travelled around the circle, for the first time I felt a little nervous. Apparently, I’d done this before, I shouldn’t need to feel nervous _, but what happened last time again? What if this one doesn’t work?_

“Athena, should we check the systems or something?” I asked, nervously.

Athena reached out and placed her hand over mine on the ornate armrest. “It’ll be all right Frank. Calm.” she reminded me as she reached up and yanked on a lever.

Rumbling started up both above and below us, I gripped the armrest more tightly, squeezing my eyes shut. I could almost feel pressure building beneath us, perhaps that was just the tension building in my body from the nerves. I smelled smoke and was dead certain we were going to die. Then there was intense force, pushing me downwards as we shot into the sky, traveling at an enormous velocity. My brain seemed to be unable to keep up with the speed at which things my visual and auditory senses picked up, things blurred around me, lights flashed, people screamed. I squeezed my eyes shut, breathing was hard at such a velocity, I began to panic.

_And then it was over, no more pressure, no more noise_ , we were amidst tall buildings and Athena miraculously had control of the shuttle.

We were drifting over Bridgeway Plaza, and by the looks of it, things had already gone to hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're coming in on the end here.


	13. As The World Burns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frank, Athena and Casey travel to the underground base of their enemies to confront them and save the citizens of Tomorrowland from an impending attack from evil robots.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS A MONSTER OF A CHAPTER.

**TL: Bridgeway Plaza, June 20 2016, 2200 Hours - Casey Newton**

To say things weren’t going well would’ve been an understatement, an attack had been launched on my lab after we announced that it was the safe place for each and every citizen. It wasn’t hard to clear the whole place out when the droids marched in, but the hard part had been rescuing the program files off the computer. That stunt also involved jumping out of a window, sprinting down a fire escape and falling the next ten feet to the ground. But I’m not going to go into too many details, because the important things happened later.

I arrived back on the Plaza, full of panicked people all staring at the object in the sky, my heart leapt. Athena had pulled through. A few people I recognized vaguely from past debates or projects were shouting, directing the people to the sides of the Plaza, clearing a space were the shuttle would hopefully crash. To whoever was driving the shuttle’s credit, it remained mostly steady as they lowered it to the ground, and if we all felt slightly burnt from their thrusters, I guess we couldn’t blame them. The thrusters, beams of energy in a fire form stabilized the shuttle in it’s descent. It was far more organized than the descent of the shuttle we’d crashed into more than one building last year. The pilot was very careful to avoid crushing people and landed in the area that had been so helpfully cleared.

Soraya appeared next to me and handed me a telephone. “Casey, Salim wants you to look at this, some of his physicist friends were taking a look at the Site earlier. They used Frank’s idea of the thermal imaging to look in the ground.”

“Soraya, I don’t see how this is at all relevant right now…” I said impatiently. “I’ll take a look at it in a little while-“

“Casey, you don’t understand-“

Frank stepped out of the shuttle, I supposed I’d always known he’d be back, but there were always those moments of doubt and panic when nothing is certain. Thank everything I was right. “Frank!” I dashed towards him and threw my arms around him, almost knocking him clean over. “You came back!”

“Why the hell does everyone think I wasn’t coming back?” Frank grumbled, but he wrapped his arms around my neck.

“Because we are all crazy.” I explained simply. “You know this.”

“Can’t breathe Casey, let me go!” he mumbled grumpily. “And speaking of gestures of affection, we must have words.”

“What are you talking about?”

_Was this important?_

“What exactly did you tell Athena about kissing?”

Had I even talked to Athena about this stuff? What do I know? _Ah, Soraya and Salim_.

“God, Frank, I can’t remember these things I have enough to focus on. I’m sure it wasn’t bad, I’m pretty sure she didn’t know what it was. Is it an urgent topic or can it wait until we sort this out?”

Frank shrugged. “It can wait.” he started to walk off.

“Wait! Oh my god, Frank, did she kiss you?” I darted after him, distracted by the sudden thought. _This was too funny._

“I thought you said we were leaving it.” He turned red.

I let out a laugh. “Isn’t artificial intelligence grand?”

“Casey, what is going on?” Athena had appeared behind me.

_Focus Newton, focus._

“I promise I’ve been on task! I blame Frank for this. Anyways, I see you’ve made it back in one piece, with uh, thirty other people, who also know what’s going on?”

“I briefed the ones who missed the past few days.” Athena nodded, then lowering her voice. “Did you find them?”

“Unfortunately I haven’t had the chance, I was broadcasting an announcement with the mayor, and then helping people and then our lab was attacked, I had to save mine and Frank’s plan and programs so they couldn’t mess you and the others up.”

Athena didn’t look too pleased, but she nodded, she glanced over at Frank who was listening to Soraya, talking to him urgently.

Frank glanced over at Athena and motioned for her to come over, I followed, assuming that it can’t be private if Soraya was also there.

“Casey, Athena, did you hear what Soraya had to say?”

I shook my head, Athena said “No”.

Frank looked at Soraya as though asking for permission to continue, she nodded encouragingly.

“She seems to think that due to the imagery and measurements they collected from scanning the ground beneath the Site, that there is some sort of subterranean device that attracts loose tachyons from the explosion to creation a hole in space, a hole in the dimension that Tomorrowland is in. It is rather weak, but if the machine was altered to be stronger, have a stronger attractive force, it could potentially pull in the entirety of the city.”

_Who the heck has it in for us?_

“Is it relevant to current events?” Athena asked.

Frank looked uncertain and ashamed.

“Sorry.”

“Frank, I’m certain it is important to something and undoubtedly worth investigating. But you have to agree, making sure people aren’t hurt should be the top priority. Regardless, it is good of you and Soraya to bring this to our attention.” Athena said seriously.

“Casey!” I turned to see a boy pushing his way through the crowd, Nate, he called my name several more times, though he had my attention.

“Kid, what’s going on?” I said, kneeling down at he came to a stop in front of me.

“Dad wanted me to tell you that there are reports of the bad guys amassing near the Site, coming out of a building there. The building is a large music production studio.”

“The bad guys? Do you mean the defense droids?”

“Yeah.” Nate nodded frantically accompanying his words.

“Okay, that sounds important.” I said, taking a deep breath in. “Nate, you need to go back to Dad. Where is Dad?”

“At home.”

Our conversation was ruptured by an explosion on the other side of the square, there was a bright flash of light and overpowering smell of smoke. People were screaming and running backwards.

_“Go Nate! Get out of here!_ ” I pushed him away from the explosion. “Get off the streets as soon as you can.”

“Do you think that building is the headquarters?”

“It’s a studio that produces music, what the hell are they going to do there?” Frank protested.

A lady cowering in fear behind us looked at him angrily. “Show some respect for other’s creations, engineer. Science and brains aren’t the extent of this place.”

Frank held up his hands in surrender. I grabbed his forearm and pulled. “We have to _go!”_

I took off running, pulling Frank Walker behind me, the panicked crowd stayed well out of our way, until we reached the edge of the Plaza. Six tall defense droids blocked the west exit staircase from the Plaza, I stopped and drew back. Their eyes started glowing blue.

“Uh, Frank?”

“Yeah, we’re dead.” Frank muttered, glancing around. “We’re definitely de-“

One of the guards fell forward, revealing Athena behind him. Oh thank god. The remaining guards turned to face Athena.

I glanced at Frank and he nodded. I launched myself at one of the droids, wrapping my arms around his neck and kicking him behind the knees, wrestling him into submission. Frank, meanwhile had delivered a sharp and efficient punch to the back of another’s neck, breaking one of the connection wires with force, the droid collapsed. I tried that on the next droid that came at me, I found that I could not throw nearly as good of a punch. I tried again and the dual force broke something inside. Disappointing, I really thought these machines were built to be durable. When I glanced up again, Athena had managed to rip off an arm from one of the droids and use her ray-gun to fry the droid’s control panel.

“It is the best strategy to destroy them. It’s efficient as soon as you can get a good grip on their arms or shoulders.” She explained at my awed look. “I’ve done it at least three times in the past week.”

“Why are we not going already?” Frank urged, already a little ways down the steps that led on to the street below the Plaza.

Normally I’d say Tomorrowland city is small enough and easy enough to navigate, but using every back alleyway, trying avoid detection, running and panicking was not time efficient or at all clear. Frank assured me that he had an idea.

“Good, because I think I ran out of them thirty seconds ago.” As far as I was concerned, I was lost.

“Just bear with me.” Frank insisted. “I promise you I don’t know what to do once we get to this place.”

Frank did get us to the building, and the space in front of the building was packed these machines. Somewhere, a voice on a loudspeaker was giving them orders, directing them to go and attack the crowd at Bridgeway Plaza. My heart was pounding in my throat, if we couldn’t find what was happening a lot of people were going to be sent away, or worse, die.

Athena pulled Frank and I back from charging into the midst of them. “Don’t.” she whispered. “We enter through the back door and get underground.”

“Why underground?” Frank asked in a hushed voice.

“The Danger Site, you think you can access whatever is below it.” I understood. “You therefore must think the two are connected.”

“When was the first comm sent from the fake Plus Ultra?” Athena asked.

“Uh, last September, September fifteenth… the very same day that the first indication of something happening at the Site, the little earthquake.” I remembered the day clearly, the shaking ground cracking open before everything was still. An earthquake in a small area, with no aftershocks that occurred without the actual existence of tectonic plates.

Frank’s eyes were wide. “So the same people who did this-“ he gestured to himself. “Are now trying to kill us. I’m going to kill them!”

I pushed open the back entrance to the building, which was just as open and viable an entrance as any other. Finally, no breaking and entering, pleasant change.

The receptionist’s booth was empty, the lobby was empty, so we stepped behind the security gate and took the elevator down, as low as it went. We stepped into a hallway bathed in yellow light, doors opened into studios filled with high-tech recording interfaces on either side of us.

“This doesn’t look bad.” I said, the hallway was calming and quiet, away from the chaos that was the outdoors.

“This feels like it has the potential to get worse.” Frank shot back sourly.

“We must move more quickly.” Athena urged. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

I sped up my slow, meandering pace, glancing quickly at every door as I went by, then something caught my eye, one of the wall panels in the recording studio was raised off the wall only slightly. The shade of wood was exactly the same, but the patterning on the wood was entirely different from the rest of the room’s panels. I stepped into the room, motioning for Frank and Athena to follow me, I tapped on the wall, it sounded solid enough. I went around the room, tapping on each panel and listening until I reached the one that was different.

This one was hollow.

I turned to Frank and Athena who were standing in the doorway, Frank seemed to be looking for an explanation, Athena was smiling.

“This one’s hollow.”

“Secret door?” Frank perked up.

Athena ducked her head out the door. “No one is coming.” she came through into the room, Frank following her and shut the door.

“There are two cameras in here.” I noted the one set up on the computer monitor was on, even though the screen remained dark, and it was pointed directly at us. There was another, a small glowing light where the wall panels met the ceiling. “So they know we’re in here. The one on the computer most likely has audio-recording capability because it’s attached to a computer. But also, seeing how this is a studio for those who create music, anything could be listening to us.”

“We aren’t going for a surprise party then.” Frank noted, he took my bag off my shoulder, but cut me off when I protested. “Athena, can I see you in the hallway for a second?”

He disappeared out the door.

Athena held up a hand, signaling for me to wait here before she followed Frank out of the room.

**TL: Music Invention Hall Basement, June 20 2016, 2300 Hours- Athena**

Out in the hallway, Frank handed me the bag he had taken from Casey. “The programming for any animatronic recruiter is in this bag. If they get their hands on it, it could be very very bad.”

I nodded, holding the bag to my chest.

“You need to hide the programming chip somewhere here, somewhere they won’t find it. Keep everything else that is in the bag. But take out our plans, any secure digital cards, find somewhere here and hide them.”

“Why?”

“Look, I’m planning on coming out of this alive, but if these people have it in for this, my program, Casey, you, the others that’s coming first. Same goes for Casey. If we are captured or killed, someone has to know what to do with this.”

“I could be captured or destroyed.”

“You won’t be. You’re smart and more physically capable. And even so, you can hold up under any sort of torture or manipulation.”

It is pleasant to be trusted, but he placed too much faith in my abilities to keep secrets. Were his or Casey’s life on the line, I am certain I could find it more logical to rescue people before rescuing the mission. They were my recruits, emergent sentience aside, I am programed to protect the recruits of the Plus Ultra. But I would do as Frank asked, his argument had logic of it’s own. I did hide the information in a secret location, in the ceiling panel of one of the recording studios, three down from the studio with the door and across the hall.

“Don’t tell me where it is.” Frank said when I rejoined him. “I don’t want to give the secret away.”

“Frank, you put too much trust in me.” I told him.

“I put the right amount of trust in you.” Frank affirmed. “Don’t die out there okay. The program’s going to need you.”

“And you too Frank Walker.”

Frank wrapped his arms around me, bending his head to rest the bridge of his nose on my shoulder. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you this morning. I am sorry.”

“I’m sorry if my understanding did not stretch as far as it should have.”

“The clock is ticking you two!” Casey called sounded irritated.

Frank let his arms slide off my shoulders and straightened. “Duty calls us, Athena. Don’t die.”

I forced a smile and followed him back into the room, handing Casey’s bag back to her.

“It’s lighter.” she commented.

“Think so?” Frank asked casually. “Maybe you are stronger.”

I fought the impulse to step on his foot, signaling him to stop talking.

“How do we open the door?” Casey pushed the panel inwards, nothing happened. Pulled outwards, pushed to the sides, nothing happened. She aimed a strong kick at the bottom of the door, the door began to tilt inwards almost like a drawbridge. The strange thing about it’s descent was the controlled nature of the fall, it did not make noise or bounce back when it hit the floor.

“It’s a machine.” Frank concluded out loud. “Either you broke it, or you figured it out.”

Beyond the panel, there was a door, emblazoned with the Plus Ultra symbol and then a cautionary symbol for high electric volts and radioactivity. The door had a standard circular knob, it would not turn when Frank and Casey tried to turn it. Approximating that they were not strong enough, I pushed my way through and turned the knob quite easily.

“Fingerprint scan recognized. Welcome.” a cool female voice came over a speaker.

Casey turned to me suspiciously. “How do they have you fingerprints in the system?”

I do not know.

“Animatronic fingerprints aren’t read the same way I’m assuming.” Frank said. “And they let the defense animatronics down here. Don’t look so suspicious Casey.”

Casey looked at him in irritation, I ignored the little staring contest that seems to be occurring in the doorway and stepping through.

Lights flickered on, illuminating a long path down a sterile grey hallway with a smooth paved floor and gleaming metal walls. The end of the hallway was just barely in my range of site, we had a long way to go. I started running, Casey and Frank mere steps behind me, I limited my speed so as not to lose them. We passed no doors on our path to the end of the hallway. We stopped short in front of the door, my human companions were pale, shaky and sweating.

Frank looked at me, now familiar panic in his eyes. “Are we sure this is the right place?”

“As sure as we can be Frank. It makes geographical sense that we are nearly under the Site right now-“ I explained.

“And, we have no other theories.” Casey gasped out.

“Yes, that too.” I agreed, reaching out for the doorknob, and twisting it. The door pushed aside easily, allowing us to spill into the room.

“Well, well, well, the regular heroes have finally showed up.” a sardonic voice drawled, I couldn’t find a face to place it with.

The room looked like any other command center, it was extremely large and circular minimal lighting, the whole room seemed to have a vaguely blueish glow to it. One curve was lined with computer consoles, chairs pulled up in front of each console. The other side of the room projected a map of Tomorrowland, at point on the map, red dots were indicators of something. But in the middle of the room, a complex metal structure that looked almost like a large, metallic wheel. Taller than either Casey, Frank or I. There were cracks, intentional or not in the side of the machine, allowing us to see side. Inside the wheel two magnets faced each other, connected and surrounded by glowing, orange colored energy.

A tall, pale man stepped out of the shadows behind the wheel.

“Dramatic.” Frank muttered.

“Ah, isn’t that what we do though, anyone who has a vision for the future has a flair for the dramatic.”

“Only if you’re insane.” Frank shot back. “Which I’m kind of assuming you are.”

This man reminded me forcefully of David Nix in his mannerisms, it was a horrifying thought. “Do you consider yourself sane Frank Walker?”

“Pretty sure we’re not acquainted through names yet.” Frank snapped. “And quite sane, thank you, considering what I have to deal with.”

“Such a negative young man, what was it that did it? The failure of your projects? Being foolish enough to fall in love with that robot girl and realizing she can’t feel? Being kicked out? Or is it all? The sum of your experiences makes you unsuited to life here, boy.”

“No, I’m just pissed that you blew up my lab and my program, put my friends in danger and sent me in the little portal upstairs and now I can’t remember 45 years of my life.”

“The person who can endure those things and maintain optimism are the only ones fit for this society.”

Casey scoffed. “That’s not how humans work, everyone has a breaking point, you can be the most cheerful person one day, then something happens and takes all the light away. But that’s not some irreversible process that marks someone for life, isn’t that a less destructive route to take.”

“Casey Newton, what a pleasure to meet you. You’re the optimist we’ve all been waiting for, you are the model citizen of Tomorrowland, brilliant, with visions and hopes for the future, innovative. I am Damian Nash, founder of this humble establishment.”

“Whatever you’re about to say, I’m really not interested.” Casey held up her hand.

“Insolent! I was merely going to comment on your interesting statement about breaking points.” He lunged for Casey, grabbing her shoulders. “What’s yours kid? Your brother? Your father? Frank Walker? The precious recruiter program you so naively arranged? I’d hate to ruin the things that make you optimistic if you chose to believe such things. But you’ll see how they all had to go, how defective they all are.”

“You leave my family the hell alone!” Casey said furiously, shoving an unsuspecting Nash off of her. “They aren’t involved in this mess.”

Nash lost his balance and toppled to the floor.

I had failed to notice the lady sitting at one of the computer consoles, but when Nash fell, she stood quickly, aiming her gun at Casey.

I dashed towards her, intending to knock off her aim before she shot, Frank had the same idea seconds before I did; we collided with the woman, and each other crashing into computer consoles, breaking at least one chair before falling to the floor. The ray-gun went off, sending sparks along a metal support on the ceiling, I grabbed the ray-gun from her hand, she rolled over on top of me. The lady was strong for a human, pinning me down by my neck, kneeling uncomfortably on my stomach with one knee, her other knee on my left wrist. I pulled my right hand which held the ray-gun free from behind my back, drew the butt of it level with the lady’s temple and smashed it with what force I could muster into the side of her forehead. She went slack and collapsed over a dazed, prostrate Frank, unconscious. Casey was on the other side of the room, cowering, her arms over her head. I pulled Frank out from underneath the fallen lady, he had a nasty cut along his left cheek and his lip was swelling and bleeding, but otherwise he was alive.

“Casey!” I cried in a call of warning as Nash dove towards her.

Casey made a disgusted face, throwing her elbow back, smashing Nash in the face, he fell backwards, groaning.

“Not so impressive in combat, Nash. Shows you shouldn’t rely on your brainless droids. By the way, terrible manufacturing, I could destroy them easily with two quick punches.”

She got quickly to her feet and scampered over to Frank and I.

“The robots are all controlled from the central location, here. I know how robotics work and I think that’s it, I could tell when I was fighting them. They’re all run from one of these computers… Keep Stalin over there in submission, I need at least five minutes.”

Frank snorted at the vaguely offensive quip.

Nash roared and jumped to his feet. “Newton!” Frank dashed to the machine in the center of the room and ran his hands along the side, dually investigating and distracting Nash.

“What were you doing with this?”

 “Oh, I’m glad you asked, proves you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed. Why in the world would I explain my entire plan to someone who is trying to take me down?”

“Are you an engineer Mr. Nash, or does being an evil positivity supremacist take up too much of your time?”

I am certain that was the funniest thing Frank Walker has ever said. I would have laughed were I not trying to very carefully sneak around behind Nash in case Frank’s efforts failed.

“Of course I’m an engineer, not anyone can harness the power of tachyons to swallow an entire dimension.”

“Well, I am certain that your standard physicist would certainly do the trick quite easily. Others maybe with more difficulty.” Frank evaluated. “So you admit that you are trying to swallow up Tomorrowland with this machine?”

“Not all of Tomorrowland, the worthy of being here would be allowed into the bunker of course, we would be protected from the force and when it was all over, we would rebuild Tomorrowland to it’s proper glory.”

“You are doing an exceptional job of keeping your secrets Nash. Your machine is rather weak too, it only affects one area and only reacts when you do change something.”

“Hmm, beginning small achieves a certain amount of interest. Your accident only furthered that interest, I was so fortunate that you stepped where you did that day I was able to crank it up for a second. I didn’t count on your ever making it back. But all the ‘buzz’ and ‘drama’ surrounding your ‘Site’ now, well it’s enough to draw the attention of everyone when it starts reacting again.”

Frank looked sick. “No!”

_Oh Frank…_

Nash turned his head and saw Casey scrambling urgently at the computers.

“Guards!” He roared. “Stop her!”

I glanced around, _what guards? If there were robots down here with us, things just got a bit harder_.

Panels on the wall slide away, incidentally the two wall spaces completely bare of computers or maps. Defense droids, one, two, three… seven poured out from each panel, all turning their guns on Casey.

Casey turned around and swore loudly.

I abandoned my position behind Nash, Frank would have to manage himself for the time being. I crept towards Casey, who was staring at me.

_Wait._ Her eyes told me. _Three. Two. One._ She pulled something from her pocket and through it casually at the left formation of guards. A small grenade. The A-As scattered as the grenade blew, throwing the room into chaos.

I darted towards the right line of animatronics, pulling one of the electro-magnets out of my ‘weaponry’ panel as I went. I vaulted over one of the chairs, somersaulting under the animatronics, connecting the electro-magnets as I went. I pulled out of the somersault in front of one of the guards, and used the electromagnets to cut through his body near the waist where I knew his power source would be. The electro-magnets broke apart, I spun around, kicking the legs out from the droid behind me, shooting him through the eye-socket with the ray-gun I still had from Nash’s colleague.

I hit the floor suddenly with a hard crack! It hurt quite a bit, but my sensors soon forgot. I was trapped under the mass of a much much larger defense droid, something sharp dug into the back of my neck, sending spasms down my spine when it affected my wiring. A little more pressure my control of my joints and muscles may be compromised. _Fear; be afraid of (someone or something) as likely to be dangerous, painful, or threatening. Yes that was it._ Then the animatronic on top of me groaned and slackened, I turned, shoving him off me to see Casey standing over me with the sharp remains of a chair leg, dipped in the mechanical oil that ran through us animatronics.

“Right in the power source.” she grinned.

It can’t have been right in the power source, that would have been a nuclear hazard, but severing something near the power source would get the job done.

“Casey! Watch out!” An animatronic loomed over her, she spun around, bashing it over the head with her chair leg with fearful abandon.

I clambered to my feet and handed her the ray-gun. “Use this.”

“We have to shut them down.” I took the chair leg from her.

_“Then go!”_

The animatronic tried to stop her, I brought the metal bar down on the crook of his elbow, destroying the joint. The animatronic jumps and scoops my legs out from underneath me, now in a position where I am slung across his shoulders upside down. I slam the tips of my toes into the back of his ribcage, he tips forwards, dropping me headlong into the ground, he falls on the machine in the center of the room, his head falling into the center. He is electrocuted and killed by contact with whatever is inside the machine. Pain was still spiking through my skull, worrying me that whatever had happened was more serious than any old bump to the head. I just need a moment to regain my equilibrium, something was jostled around. My eyes closed instinctively, blocking out what was happening around me.

**TL: Under ‘The Site’ Base, June 21 2016, 100 Hours - Frank Walker**

Needless to say, things were pretty bad until Casey shut down the robots, I was left to fend the five not destroyed in Casey’s explosion off. It’s not as simple as a few punches to the head when there are five of them going at you at once. I’ve never had so many bruises in my life, not even after countless failed jetpack test trials back on the farm all those years ago. I lost site of Nash in what turned out to be a giant game of evading the robots so they couldn’t beat me up. My heart was beating, levels of desperation were at an all time high and there was nothing I could do to push back my opponents, I was not strong enough to win.

Athena had conquered her fair share of enemies, they lay in a heap of various parts on the floor. In a heart-stopping moment I realized she’d joined them there, her eyes closed, but her breathing impulse still functional.

“Athena?”

Her eyes opened in shock. “Hit my head.” she said weakly, trying to sit up.

“Yeah, yeah.” I said, comfortingly, helping her regain her balance.

“Is something out of place in there?” I pointed to her head. “A wire unattached?”

“I think I’ll be fine now.” she affirmed, then her eyes widened, she grabbed my shoulder and forced me down, leaping beyond me. _“Stay down Frank.”_

An animatronic behind me had been pointing a gun at me, Athena disarmed him quickly, firing every round of bullets in the gun into the animatronic’s stomach. I felt numb, one more second and I might have been a goner but I was still here. And everything was suspiciously quiet.

“I did it, guys.” Casey said quietly. I realized what was different, the battle had stopped, no more heavy robots running and falling and shooting.

I exhaled sharply and tasted the metallic tang of blood in my mouth.

Athena knelt in front of me examining my face, she didn’t look very happy.

“What is it?”

She pressed a finger to my swollen upper lip, I winced. “Hey!”

“Sorry!” she exclaimed.

“There’s a lot of blood, Frank.”

“Yes, it tastes awful.”

“Guys.” Casey said in a warning voice. _“Guys._ ”

We turned in unison to see what she was looking at, Nash was muttering to himself and darting around the machine at the centre of the room.

_Oh right, one more machine to shut down._

Casey darted over to Nash, grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him against the wall, using her forearm to put pressure on his throat. “How do you shut it down?” She growled.

“You cannot.”

“Why is that?”

“The whole place will blow from the energy release. This whole bunker will collapse. You shut it down, we all die.” Nash croaked out. “It is too late anyways, the settings have been cranked up, soon all of Tomorrowland will be gone."

The bottom dropped out of my stomach. There was no coming back later, no capturing Nash and getting out. We destroyed the Tachyon-Attractor now and saved everyone’s lives, or waited it out in the bunker and survived. The right decision was undoubtable, but I’ve never been more scared in my life.

“How?” Casey said in a low voice, bringing the ray-gun she held up to Nash’s temple. 

“The red button on the base of the machine.” He croaked defeatedly.

“Frank, do it.” Casey ordered.

Athena was searching frantically through Casey’s bag, she looked up as I crawled a few yards away to where I saw the red button. Without a moment’s hesitation, I kicked the button and scrambled away. Instantly the floor began quaking, the ceiling, I scuttled back over to Athena over the uneven floor. She was standing now, she grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the machine.

“Casey!” She was yelling repeatedly, until the girl listened to her and joined us.

Casey had tears streaming down her cheeks, she was shaking uncontrollably. Athena looked collected as usual, perhaps I should I have felt something, regret or anger, perhaps it was terror making me numb. Perhaps I hadn’t quite yet processed that we would die down here. 

Athena rested her forehead against my temple, clutching something tightly in her right hand, I reached around and held onto her shoulder with one hand, holding Casey’s fingers with the other. The rocks start to fall, I heard Casey’s cry of pain and see a small rock strike her unconscious.

_The End. There are probably a lot of things I’m going to miss out on. There are a lot of things I mean to do, I never did do them. I never told Athena how I felt, I never finished the recruiter program, so many ‘nevers’. Now I felt regret, and pain, and fear. I was never happy and now I’d never get the chance._

Athena raised her right hand into the air, pain explodes through my skull. The last thing I see before my vision fades away is a blue dome expanding over our heads, Athena was talking, she said my name, something else, I couldn’t hear her, the world faded away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And again, Athena is the real MVP of this team.


	14. I Love You, Frank Walker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Athena cares for Frank leading to the emergence of things left unsaid. (Casey is exasperated by people running around cluelessly).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *screaming*

**TL: Walker-Newton Apartment Building, June 22 2016 100 Hours - Frank Walker**

Don’t ask me what happened in the past twenty-four hours, I can’t remember past a few blurred images and phrases. A reoccurring theme in my life, one might note, damn it. I know I was in the hospital for a few hours, but when I fully came to, it was in my own apartment. What do I remember from the hospital? Getting stitches in my face and being stuck in an MRI machine, neither of them pleasant experiences to remember. But I suppose I hurt seriously enough to need to stay in the hospital which is a blessing, two stints in a hospital before the week is two times too many in my opinion.

It was very dark and very quiet in my apartment when I woke, cold sweat drenched the back of my neck and my hands were trembling. When I sat up, my head spun and every muscle in me seemed to protest. Every light was off, even the bathroom light which seems unnatural but I don’t know why, the only light in the room entered from the glow of the city outside the window.

“Frank?”

_Jesus Christ!_

Athena, who had been laying stiffly beside me, still enough that I did not notice her presence, sat up.

“Frank, are you awake?”

“Yeah.” My voice was still rough from being unused, my mouth uncomfortably dry.

“Is everything all right?”

“Little sore. Little confused. But beyond that, I don’t feel terrible.” I started to edge around her, making as though to get up.

“Where are you going?” 

“Drink of water.” I explained.

That’s when my brain caught up to what was happening _, oh my god. Casey. Nash. The Site. The citizens_. The air went right out of my lungs and I sat back down on the bed, head in my hands.

I heard Athena get up and walk into the kitchen, opening cupboards and running the faucet, eventually she sat back down next to me.

“Frank, everything is all right.” she said placatingly. “You’re all right. Casey has a concussion and they kept her overnight, but she’s going to be just fine. Casey’s family is alive, down at the hospital with Casey. You and Casey saved them, the Site is gone, Damian Nash is gone and they are going to find the others who helped him using the computer systems. There was some extent of damage to the Bridgeway Plaza and the people there, but no reported deaths.”

I took the water glass from her and raised it to my mouth, trying to believe that I was safe now. But coming down off five terror-filled days, my mind was hard to put to rest.

“I went back and rescued yours and Casey’s information on the programming from the Studio.” Athena said. “It’s on the table right there, your work is all safe.”

“How did you do it? Keep us safe…”

“You made that deflective device a long time ago, because of the war in Vietnam, you wanted to protect the soldiers. You never got around to a patent I believe, but your prototype still seems to be functional.”

I nodded, reaching over to set my glass on the bedside table, my hand brushed through Athena’s hair, surprisingly it was cool and somewhat damp.

“Your hair is wet.”

“I cleaned it.”

“Why?”

“There was a lot of dust on me from the cave-in.” she sounded as though it were obvious.

 _Hey! What do I know about robot hygiene?_ I always assumed they permanently looked how they were built. Perhaps I’d think differently if I remembered- I had to stop going down that road. This was my somewhat frustrating reality.

“Um, not that you aren’t welcome or anything… Why are you in my house?”

Athena laughed. “Watching for signs of a concussion and insuring that you don’t die in your sleep.”

“Oh, just that okay. And I definitely just made you laugh.”

“I might’ve laughed when you called Nash a ‘positivity supremacist’ were the situation not so grave.”

“And to think you told me on your deathbed that I am not funny.”

Athena didn’t really reply, I had the feeling she really did not like talking about whatever had happened, particularly with me. That piqued my interest.

“Perhaps you should get some more rest.” Athena said stiffly. “The doctors wanted to keep you resting until the morning at least.” She put a hand on my shoulder and not in a gentle way, in a _‘you’d better lay down now’_ way.

I crawled back under the covers defeatedly, surprised at how tired I actually felt, my eyes drifted closed.

 

When I awoke next, sunlight was streaming into the room and Athena was talking.

“Yes, I think he is just waking up now. He was up for a while last night, I didn’t see much cause for concern.” she was holding a telephone to her ear, sitting on the table and staring at me. “Good morning, Frank. Yes, he is awake now.”

“Morning. Who’s on the phone?”

“Casey. No, no, I’m not, I was speaking to Frank. I should hang-up, I will try to come to the hospital later, if Frank is all right.- Goodbye Casey.” She pressed a button on the phone, ending the conversation and set the phone carefully on the table. “How are you feeling? Are you hungry?” She said the word as though it were a foreign concept.

“Surprisingly awake and yes, hungry.”

Athena nodded, processing the information. “You don’t have food here.” she remarked.

 _Interesting._ I guess it wouldn’t make very much sense, Casey says I was always eating in their apartment.

“Yeah, I think I always ate at the Newtons’”

“Do you think you can walk?” I could not only walk, I couldn’t wait to get out of my house, I am not one to sit still.

“Okay.”

Well, my brilliant plan of standing up and marching down the street, once again strong and healthy? Failed. And rather embarrassingly so. I made it pretty far, through the motions of dressing, brushing my hair and brushing my teeth. Halfway to the elevator, I felt inexplicably weak and my sore muscles were screaming. Athena held my arm to steady me, which made the motions easier but not less painful.

Fortunately, as I mentioned before it was sunny and not too warm in the earlier hours of the day and there was a slight breeze. Passing people on the streets, you might never know that just yesterday morning evil robots were attacking the city. They greeted each other, debated ferociously, a little trio was singing as they made their way down the street.

At the very least, they were moving on, that brightened my mood quite a bit. Athena didn’t say a lot as we walked, but she seemed to know where she was going, which was good, the food culture in Tomorrowland was a little different then the last time I’d visited. I guess interests and businesses change a lot over forty years, it was odd to see that happen here though.

She got me a pastry and orange-juice at a small store.

“I don’t know where to get eggs.” she apologized. “However, there was once a place like this one and we ate their sugary bread once.”

“Pastries.” I corrected, wondering how she managed to order it without sounding like a lunatic, there was little she didn’t know but the things she didn’t were the strangest things. “And you didn’t eat one.”

“I don’t eat.” Athena replied. “You should sit down and rest, you look very pale.”

She guided me over to a stone bench in the shade of a tree and helped me lower myself onto it.

“Bad balance is a sign of a concussion right?” I asked anxiously.

“It can mean many things, they tested you at the hospital and you were healthy. I am not seeing due cause for concern.”

Eating was a little painful with a stitched together cheek, the cut didn’t go all the way through, but it was deep enough.

“If I weren’t here, there would be no hints as to the bionic apocalypse of yesterday.” I remarked.

Athena’s mouth twitched. “It’s is not as serious as you think.”

“Well, my lip isn’t swollen anymore, so at least I can use ‘em, but I don’t think I’ll need to with the stitches on my cheek.”

Athena didn’t find that amusing, but I thought it was rather clever, really. I laughed at my own joke.

“Athena, can I ask you something?”

“You just did.”

“That’s not funny anymore.”

“But what is your real question?”

“Why won’t you talk to me about the day you died?”

**TL: West Side Hospital, June 22 2016, 2200 Hours - Athena**

I was afraid. There are no other words or excuses for my lack of honesty except an overpowering fear. A completely illogical state of panic, contrary to my thoughts when we were going to die. Last night, I’d regretted not reminding Frank of what I said before I died. Regretting not reminding him that I was in love with him. But confronted with the opportunity to say something this morning I could not face it. Now I am scared and frustrated and Casey Newton is asleep.

After Frank asked me that question, I waved it aside, telling him that I should take him home. When we reached Frank’s apartment, we received the message that I could return to other things given I was not concerned for Frank’s health. His balance had significantly improved with the practice a walk given him, I was not worried. So Frank asked me to leave, much in the same fashion as he had forty five years ago:

_“Leave.”_

_“Excuse me?”_

_“Remove yourself from my apartment, didn’t you hear?”_

_I’m not a human, but I’m acquainted enough with the culture to know that it was rude of Frank to do this. “Rather impolite.” I’d shot back._

_“Impolite is ignoring someone’s question, Athena.” Frank snapped. “I never know what you are thinking, god forbid I ask a question! It makes you damn hard to trust, now leave.”_

I’d almost explained myself right then and there, but the door shut in my face and panic took over again. Bothersome fear. I went to visit Casey in the hospital, I was sure she would be able to fix it, or explain things using human logic instead of the half-human, half-machine lopsidedness of my brain. But she was sleeping when I got there, and still sleeping, four hours later.

I am almost certain that years ago Frank loved me, he never said anything but the approximation was well based on things I’d known and seen. He hadn’t told me, not as a child, almost as an adult before stopping himself. I am not certain and assumptions are not always logical, but if guessing were the only way, that would be my approximation. Unfortunately I cannot rely on information from so long ago, and I do not know what Frank’s life had been or if his supposed feelings changed. It was agonizing not to have instant access to information. But I supposed that had I just said something; the information would have been fairly instantaneous.

“Athena!” Casey was awake and surprisingly alert. “Where is Frank?”

“He’s home.”

“You look awfully unhappy, no Athena-smiles even when I’ve just woken up in the hospital.”

“You were awake this morning.”

“True, but I hadn’t seen you yet.”

“I am not feeling like smiling.”

Casey broke into an amused grin for a minute, then her face fell. “What did Walker do?”

“It’s not Frank’s fault. It’s my fault.”

“That makes me sure that it is Frank’s fault. He lost his temper and sent you away, for reasons that I’m sure involve your weird relationship.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Spoken with Frank?”

“Intuition. I seem to remember a similar conversation at this very hospital not too long ago.”

“He asked me about the day I was destroyed.”

“You’re going to need to tell me a little more.” Casey sighed. “I’m not that smart, what did you tell him?”

“Nothing.” I confessed. “I didn’t answer him at all.”

Casey put her hand over her face. “I was wrong, this is definitely your fault. Why didn’t you tell him?” her eyes lit up in amusement. “Scared?”

“Yes.”

Casey sucked in air. “Well, I was kidding, but okay. I guess you can be scared.”

“That’s what is bothering me. I cannot move past being afraid even though honesty is more natural. I am confused.”

Casey nodded. “Yeah, I know, it’s scary and it’s never going to stop being scary. No one knows how Frank’s going to react, even though I’d bet on ‘well’. It’s scary because what happens then, friendship is comfortable sure, it’s safe. If you start dating Frank, there are all the complications of human versus bionic. If he reacts badly you might not be friends anymore.”

Well, that is the reason for fear. I understood Casey’s message far long before I could even come to my own conclusions. I am programmed to be clever and quick-thinking, I am not programmed with anything beyond recognition of emotions, my programmed quick-thinking ends right there, leaving me lost.

“But he isn’t going to trust you and nothing is going to be better if you get too scared to continue.” Casey pointed out. “The longer you wait, the worse it is going to be. Just go, it’s not going to get worse. Even if I have to punch sense into Frank, which I’m hoping I won’t have to do, I don’t throw a good punch.”

I took a deep breath. _It can’t get worse_. I told Casey ‘good-bye’.

“I don’t want to see either of you until someone does something.” Casey called after me. “Oh, and Athena? You only kiss people you are romantically affectionate for, I heard about the stunt in New York, scared the daylights out of Frank.”

 

I ran back towards Frank’s apartment building, not even bothering to wait for a monorail, but as it turns out, I didn’t have to go all the way to Frank. He was walking himself from the monorail towards the hospital across the street when I spotted him.

“Frank!”

He turned towards me in surprise.

“Casey is not going to see you.” I called, remembering Casey’s warning. “I want to talk to you. I want to answer your question. I know you are angry, Frank, will you listen regardless?”

Apparently that was all the convincing he needed to sprint across the street; Frank Walker is always curious.

“Frank, do you want to talk about the day I was destroyed?”

“I want to know why no one will tell me what happened, but everyone references it.”

I held my hands together tightly enough that it hurt, I cannot cry and I will not shake from fear which is usually a blessing. There was too much tension in me. “I jumped in front of a powerful ray-gun beam because the Oracle predicted Nix would kill you if I did not. I didn’t want you to die, but the blast damaged me beyond repair. You wanted to repair me, but I convinced you to use my self destruct to destroy the Oracle. Before I died, I told you a few moments I’d recorded for you. I wanted to tell you that I am animatronic but Nix said it would ruin the experiment, I was concerned how the lie would affect you. And what I suspected to be a flaw in my empathy interface for you, Casey supposes that it is rather emergent sentience, not an error. But regardless of what it was and what it is, it meant…”

Frank was leaning against a wall, watching me, waiting for me to say something. His eyes were hopeful and concerned and curious all at the same time, he motioned for me to go on.

“It meant that I love you, Frank Walker.”

 

Frank was silent for a long, panicky moment, his eyes wide in shock and horror or surprise, I couldn’t tell. His mouth kept opening and shutting as though he were trying to respond but couldn’t find his words. For a short time, I thought he might actually lose consciousness, he was holding his breath.

“Athena…” he muttered in shock, pushing himself off the wall.

I was indecisive on how this was going until he kissed me.

His hands were on either side of my face freezing cold against my sensors, quickly closing the estimated seven foot gap between us. He pressed his lips to mine a bit uncertainly, gently tilting his head a bit to the right to avoid colliding with my nose. I stiffened, my eyes shut instinctively, I was unsure of how to proceed. The world seemed to fade away, the sounds of the street and the city were irrelevant.

_Should I put my arms around him? Pull away? What is happening?_

I looped my arms around Frank’s neck, the back of my left hand in his hair, my muscles relaxed slightly. My breathing impulse had stopped altogether, Frank exhaled through his nose, the air tickling my cheek. Kissing a robot, an interesting notion I am sure, it was not unpleasant for me, quite the opposite. My sensors felt a bit, tingly for lack of a better word, Frank’s lips were soft and unsure as he was, also very gentle. My skin was pleasantly warm under Frank’s hands and against his neck, I could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest where he was pressed to me. But more than anything physically, I felt emotionally gratified. _Safe. Accepted. Comforted._

Frank pulled away from me before I from him, he kept his hands on my cheeks, my arms were still around his neck.

Frank blushed furiously. “Thank you. I mean… what? What the hell did I just say?”

I made a vague noise; as revealing as that was, I wished he would say something.

Frank looked concerned. “Oh, crap. I’m sorry. I didn’t ask, I’m so impulsive.” he pulled his hands away from my face, brushing my neck. “Athena…”

“Frank, it’s all right.” I assured him, maintaining my hold on him. “I am not angry. And you were rather wrong this morning about not using your mouth.”

“Oh, good.” Frank said awkwardly, laughing nervously. He was moving his hands from my neck to my shoulders as though unsure of what to do with them, they were trembling. “Uh, the feeling is mutual, agh! I mean, I like- I- damn it Athena, I love you too!”

I smiled at him, some invisible barrier broke inside me, spilling warmth everywhere. _Relief: a feeling of reassurance and relaxation following release from anxiety or distress._

 

My back was leaning against the cold metallic wall behind me, my legs against the cold stone ground. Frank’s arm was dropped across my shoulders, pulling me close to him. We were both quiet, thinking about whatever just happened. Frank was slowly relaxing, tremors running through his body occasionally as he did. “

What are we going to do Athena?” he asked finally.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re animatronic, I am human, I will grow older, you will not, it happened once. Nothing will stop it from happening again. In a few years things will be different, I’ll look twenty, you’ll look fifteen. I can’t imagine feeling differently, I never have in fifty-seven years. But this can only ever be temporary, can’t it?”

He was human, he said. He claims to never have felt differently about me, emotions to last lifetimes. Something that was unforgettable. Frank said things would change and this would end, I knew it would, Casey had said it earlier. I was afraid of that change, and I am afraid it will hurt. Can we be anything but hurt now if we know if will hurt later? Is there any point in trying now?

I asked Frank and encouraged him to be honest.

“No.” he said after a moment’s thought. “We can’t have a relationship based on an end date and go on during or after with any success. I will not alter my aging process willingly, you can do nothing about yours.” His voice was full of pain, but honest. He withdrew his arm from me and buried his head in his hands.

_I am so foolish._

The pain was there in my chest too, as though I were being torn into two pieces. It would be too painful to try at all.

“I am so sorry Athena.”

I forgave Frank Walker for it, maybe if things had been different we might’ve been happy together, happy to grow old or to stay young. But this was real and true and I was a fool to think it would be otherwise. I stood up and kissed the top of Frank’s head.

“Goodbye Frank Walker.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry.


	15. Boat Wait! There's More!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Casey's stint in the hospital is made significant more stressful by a heartbroken robot. Frank looks for a solution.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I really needed to think about the ending here.

**TL: West Side Hospital, June 23 2016, 800 Hours - Casey Newton**

I woke to the sound of my phone, alerting me that I had an incoming message, I forced my eyes open feeling angry. Last night had not been a good one, Athena returned to my hospital room at two in the morning, through the window. Apparently they didn’t want her to come in the normal way, so she did the logical thing and climbed five storeys up the side of the building. If she was here, things with Frank can’t have gone over well. She was still there when I woke up, curled on the other side of my bed.

I reached groggily for my phone, peering at the message Frank had sent me:

_From: Frank Walker: Morning Casey, is Athena with you?_

_To: Frank Walker: Yes. By the way, I really hate you both_.

_From: Frank Walker: Can’t blame you. Is Athena okay?_

_To: Frank Walker: In one piece. I haven’t really talked to her. But I’m guessing she isn’t._

 

“Good morning Casey.” Athena muttered, not turning her head to look at me immediately.

_From: Frank Walker: Okay. Do you know where a pharmacy is?_

“A pharmacy?” I muttered incredulously.

Athena turned around to look at me. “I beg your pardon?”

“Oh, nothing. Um, I’m talking to… talking to… Nate?” I was hesitant to bring up Frank.

“You’re speaking to Frank.” she concluded.

“He asked if you were here, he wanted to know you were okay. And now he’s asking about a pharmacy, I’m confused and considering being concerned. “

Athena raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know.”

_To: Frank Walker: What even? There’s one if you take the first left off of Bridgeway and walk for about a mile, straight._

_From: Frank Walker: Thank you. I will see you later._

_To: Frank Walker: You will?_

_(Read at 8:10 Hours)_

I set the device down on the table beside my bed heavily, sighing. “I guess I’ll find out later, he says he’s going to visit I think.”

“When?” Athena asked.

“I wish I knew.”

Silence.

“Want to tell me what the heck happened last night?”

“I told him, I promise I did, that’s not why he is angry.”

_Okay._

_“And what did he say?_ Don’t leave me hanging here.” I urged.

“He kissed me. Then said that he returned my feelings.”

“But…” I urged again. “It’s the age thing isn’t it?”

“Yes. If we would only last two or three years and we were counting down to the end, we decided it would be far worse to try.”

“True.”

“He was always so strongly against altering the course of his life with science.”

“Then why did he build the Oracle?”

“He was confident that he might only see good things, or solutions to problems that would arise. Stopping bad things before they happened.”

_Seems to have an inclination to do that, never to a good end._

“God, I’m so sorry Athena.”

“It was the right decision for him.” Athena affirmed. “I want what’s best for him.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

“Of course.” Athena said indignantly.

 

The door opened, admitting a pair of nurses, coming to bring me to my MRI scan scheduled for this morning.

“Who is this?” one of the nurses said alarmed, pointing his finger at Athena.

“Athena. We’ve been here so much in the past week I’m surprised you don’t know all our names.” I joked.

The nurse seemed not to know what to make of that and instead helped me into the wheelchair.

 

**TL: West Side Hospital, June 23 2016, 1100 Hours - Frank Walker**

I didn’t sleep at all last night, by the next morning, I was determined and exhausted. I’d gone home last night after saying goodbye to Athena, heartbroken and horrified. At some point in my fatigued, melancholy haze, I’d begun to think of solutions; ways for things to be different. _What could I change so that I don’t feel so awful?_

I couldn’t change the fact that I was a human and Athena a robot. But here I was, after a supposed half-century of being in love with her, I was the one to end it. _What was this nonsense_? I began to think.

And think.

And think, pacing the same stretch of floor in my apartment for hours. I must have thought of many different bizarre ideas, many of them involving time travel, all of them being overruled as they were far to dangerous to be considered. I wished Casey were there, she’d make everything clear as day. Alternatively, she might hit me upside the head for being an idiot, maybe it’s better she doesn’t know what happened yet. She’d probably sympathize with Athena and everything would be a mess. _Why do I make everything a mess? Nix was right, I’m-_

_Wait just a second… Nix!_

He was the solution to the problem. I’d known him fifty years and he didn’t look to many days older from the first time I’d met him, the last time I remember looking at him. I don’t know how the hell I knew what Nix looked like at the time of his death, but this must be the key.

 

So there I was, taking the monorail to visit Casey in the hospital to talk to her about last night and my possible solution. I’d done a bit of research and I think I had the right idea of what to do, I still wanted my lab partner’s advice. They checked me in at the front desk, the one and only time they were lenient about identification and security, but to be honest, I was probably very very famous at this hospital.

I took the stairs two at a time to see Casey, it was three floors up, on the right and six doors down. I threw open the door to her room.

“Hey Casey, I need your help with someth-“ I stopped short at the sight of Casey and Athena sitting in two chairs near the window, both of them turned to stare at me. “-ing.” I finished lamely.

Casey looked unimpressed. “Hello to you to Frank, glad to see you are alive.”

“Uh, right back at you. Sorry, I thought you’d be gone by now. Maybe I should just come back later.” I started to inch out the door.

Casey put on a bored expression. _“Oh my-“_

“No, that’s quite all right.” Athena said calmly. “I should go find the others anyways.”

_“-God_. We are not doing this awkwardly avoiding each other thing for the rest of our lives. What did you want Frank? You can say it to all of us.”

“I was doing some research last night-“ I began, uncomfortably.

_I’m going to have a solution and be an adult and Athena won’t be mad at me anymore._

“What kind of research?” I think Casey Newton made a suggestive joke, but I never asked her.

“On David Nix.” I finished more confidently. “He invented a serum and I was going to try to recreate it, I wanted to look over these notes with you. It’s chemistry and neither of us are strong in chemistry, but maybe we can make it work.”

“Why are you trying to recreate one of his inventions?” Casey sneered.

I glanced nervously at Athena, she was staring back, her face devoid of expression, but I believe I could feel her surprise.

“Because I think it will be helpful, they sell it in pharmacies now, but I don’t trust it. I believe I could correct it to make it less hazardous.”

“Oh, that serum.” Casey and Athena exchanged a serious look and Casey nodded, a small enough movement that I almost missed it. “Seems legit, if that’s what you want to do. But if you want to talk about it, you have to get me coffee first, I’m too tired for this.”

_Casey never has coffee, she prefers hot cocoa._ The thought flitted across my mind. Strange.

“I thought you didn’t like coffee?”

Casey grinned. “Very good. I don’t, but I also don’t have the ability to talk chemistry and stay awake. So shoo!”

“Uh, sure.” I backed out of the room and shut the door.

_“Athena!”_ I heard Casey admonish. “ _Are you crazy? What are you still doing here? — I don’t want coffee, go talk to Frank.”_

Some days I don’t know if Casey Newton is my biggest supporter or the most irritating person I know. I went to walk down the hallway pretending I hadn’t heard, assuming Athena wouldn’t come to talk to me.

“Frank.” she didn’t raise her voice, but I heard her well enough to turn around.

“Uh, hi.” I said awkwardly. “Heard Casey sent you out for a little chat.”

“She encouraged it. I know what Nix’s serum does, Frank.”

“Good, I don’t have to explain it then?”

“You would never use it in the past, you claimed it was against your ethics.”

“Maybe I’m not ready for the future you and Casey keep telling me I’m going to have.”

“It is past Frank.” Athena sighed. “That is not honest. I do not want you to make decisions you will regret. Particularly where I am responsible.”

_What the hell? Had she already deleted the whole scenario from her brain? Why was she so critical?_

“I can always change my decisions, the serum is not permanent. There are many factors that led to my changing my mind, and yes, last night was an important factor. So is wanting to change my future, maybe I am not done here.”

Athena listened and assessed my arguments, her arms lose by her sides, her back upright. When I finished, she nodded sharply, as though unsure of what to say.

“I’m going to make it work Athena, it already works. It’s medically unsafe in many cases, but I’ll negate that, and it will work. It’s all there on the papers I showed to Casey.”

“I know you will.” Athena remarked.

I got the impression she wasn’t understanding my hints, probably time to go a more direct route.

“Uh, so, god…” I scratched the back of my neck uncomfortably. “In relation to last night, uh.” I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks.

Athena looked more interested now, a spark behind her eyes. “Yes?”

“When I take it, I won’t age, not very much.”

Athena agreed.

“And that would obviate what I said last night, I believe.”

“It would.”

_What was with the monosyllabic comments? Say something Athena!_

“So, ugh, God… Can we just, I’m not sure, pretend what I said never happened?”

“Which part?” Athena asked. “You said many things.”

“ _About the growing-up thing!”_

Athena started to smile at that point, which I took as a good sign. “I think I’d like that.”

“Wait, really? Wow, I didn’t think it would be so simple.”

“Why would it not be?” Athena asked, stepping a little closer to me.

I reached down and took her hands, leaning my forehead against hers. “Because if you were a human, it would’ve been. Humans are pretty damn stupid.”

“Thought comes with over-thinking.” Athena corrected, leaning upwards, her lips brushed mine.

I leaned closer, clumsily bumping our noses together. _Damn it Walker._

**TL: October 2, 2016, 1300 Hours - Casey Newton**

So what happened to us after June 23 2016? Not much to be perfectly honest, we returned to our lives. I just had my nineteenth birthday, two more years until I’ll be able to join the space exploration corps in Tomorrowland. But until then, I work on the program, building and helping animatronics and pretty much running the whole business. Of course Frank helps with that too. Nate and Dad are doing okay, Dad’s working for the Space Exploration Corps as an engineer, going back to his NASA days. Nate still goes to school, but I think he enjoys it, I wish I’d gone to junior high school in Tomorrowland. And as far as the evil Plus Ultra guys that were definitely not the true embodiment of the Plus Ultra? Well, they’ve all been caught, and we still haven’t thought of what to call them instead of “Plus Ultra” which as I mentioned before, is not accurate. We’re pushing for greater acceptance of audio-animatronics into the population, but it’s not been easy to change the mindset _. With time_ , I’m telling myself, right?

I’m also guessing that no one really cares about all that stuff, but what about Frank and Athena? Am I right? Well, they’re fine. Frank invents stuff, he’s been working on creating a way of communicating from Tomorrowland to Earth. Without having to physically go there and all. He works in the recruiter program sometimes, helping make the animatronics and organize. Athena has returned to her mission of finding new dreamers for Tomorrowland, I think she’s happy about that. Sometimes it means her being away for nearly a month at a time with no way to communicate with us, but she’s done well. In fact, she returned yesterday from a three-week mission; successful with another recruit for us, but also with a ‘muscle’ in her ankle all torn up. She came into our lab unannounced as she does usually provided it’s not some odd hour of the morning. Frank was in a much better mood after that, he gets worried when Athena is gone for over fifteen days. Unfortunately, that meant the violation of the rule that my lab is a sacred place of science and engineering. (Dear Frank, take it to the hallway). One would imagine their relationship is a little different, that’s true, a dinner-date for example: Athena doesn’t eat a thing. But they are very cute, I’ll admit. They share Frank’s apartment when Athena’s around, Athena doesn’t sleep but she’ll stay with Frank if she gets the chance. A lot of people make fun of Frank for being with a robot. The animatronics mock Athena for ‘having evolved’ or having developed some sort of sentience. I admire the ability of Frank and Athena not to care what they were saying. So, yeah, essentially they’re doing well, Frank’s anti-aging serum seems to be working out for him. And-

_“John Francis Walker! What have I told you about this lab? It’s strictly for inventing and science! Get out of here!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for all your support of this story and for reading it. I really hope you enjoyed it.


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